The Future of Gig Economy

The gig economy is transforming the way people view and perform work. It is a dynamic form of work structure that offers individuals to work without being tied down to one company. Besides, with hyper-connectivity from social media networks, people enjoy simple and fast communication channels. More so, this economy opened new ways to earn.

In addition, people now have the option to explore the opportunity to work in different fields under various short-term contracts. Moreover, it can be a good option for full-time workers to earn additional income. Although, the drawback here is that part-time workers do not receive any corporate benefits. Thus, Real Research published a survey on gig economy to find out, is gig economy growing? Here are the results.

Highlights

• 56.83% of respondents said they know the term gig economy
• Most of the participants believe that gig economy allows greater flexibility
• The downside of gig economy is that temporary or freelance workers increase
• The participants are likely to increase the participation rate in the future

Most People Are Aware of the Gig Economy

To begin with, Real Research’s survey on gig economy asks if people are aware of it. As a result, 56.38% answered yes, while the other 43.62% are not aware of gig economy.

Meanwhile, the gig economy is also popular for office workers who are seeking extra income. At the same time, the survey asked which industry will benefit most from the gig economy. In fact, 36.91% of the respondents chose employees within the IT sector.

Read Also: Work-Life Trends by Generation in 2021 — Survey Results

The Advantage and Disadvantage of Gig Economy

For firms, the gig economy is often a win-win situation. On one hand, businesses can quickly contract with experts for individual projects without the overhead costs like office space, training, and benefits. Meanwhile, for freelancing gig workers, there will always be advantages and disadvantages.

Likewise, the survey asked what is the advantages of the gig economy for employees? As a result, 29.48% of participants believe that the gig economy brings greater flexibility hours to the workspace. Unlike traditional employees, gig workers are free to choose what type of work they do and when and where they do them.

At the same time, respondents also share their opinion on the disadvantage of the gig economy.  28.06% of respondents said it increases the number of temporary or freelance workers who are not always legally protected. However, some gig jobs come with any sort of health or retirement benefits. Meanwhile, numerous long-term contracts may proceed with limited benefit packages.

Read Also: 40.98% Prefer Remote Working Over Work From Office

Gig Economy Future Participation Rate

The gig economy consists of people who are not on the payroll. This means that firms can send payments to freelancers without deducting any taxes or paying employer taxes. In fact, from the survey question regarding participation rate, 40.82% of the participants are likely to increase the participation rate in the future.

To clarify, the ‘gig’ comes from musicians and describes a job that lasts for only a specified period. Besides, there are many types of gig workers. To name a few common gig economy models, these include ride-sharings, consultants, fitness instructors, tutors, performers, and photographers.

Lastly, regarding which gig economy platform has commonly used by the respondents, Fiverr got 36.39%, the highest number of users among all platforms.