The Future (And History) Of Gig Work

Gig work, such as driving, delivery, and rental is becoming easier and better with apps like Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb. But gig jobs are much older than you may think. Since 2009, “gig economy”  has been referred to part-time freelance work, but the start of the gig economy starts all the way back in 1915, when jazz musicians coined the term “gig” to refer to performances. 

Jumping to 1995, 10% of all Americans worked in alternative employment, whether it be temps, contractors, or on call workers. In 2005, Amazon Mechanical Turk made a crowdsourcing marketplace for simple, repetitive tasks that AI can’t do. Also in 2005 Airbnb was created by roommates as a way to make the cost of rent cheaper and despite initial struggles in the beginning, by 2008, Airbnb was worth $38 billion, and in 2010, 2 entreprenuers realized how hard it was to find rides and made Uber - just a short five years later, Uber had accepted an astounding over 1 billion rides.

But gig work is changing. Gig work is paying less and has less benefits that traditional jobs have. Find out more about the future of gig work and how it may be in trouble here.