THE FUTURE OF WORKERS: CONTINGENT FORMS OF LABOR CONTRACTING IN THE PLATFORM ECONOMY
THE FUTURE OF WORKERS: CONTINGENT FORMS OF LABOR CONTRACTING IN THE PLATFORM ECONOMY

Summary/Abstract: We follow recent research (e.g. Healy, Nicholson, and Pekarek, 2017; Lehdonvirta, 2018; van Doorn, 2017) showing that labor platforms’ software-driven management approaches aggravate the already unstable conditions of contingent employees in the current underprivileged service economy. Using data from ADP, Deloitte University Press, SMB Group; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census; U.S. Department of Labor, Intuit Contingent Workforce Forecast, and National Technology Readiness, we performed analyses and made estimates regarding companies’ usage of contingent workers over the next 3–5 years, the total number of employees interested in freelancing or self-employment (by country), percentage of contingent workers in the U.S. workforce, the share of workers in each type of alternative work arrangement, the annual on-demand economy spending (billions), and the nonemployer business growth, by industry (2003–2018). Empirical and secondary data are employed to support the claim that the gig economy’s consequences on the temporal arrangements of labor are identifiable in the factual routines that its users embrace.

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