{"id":81870,"date":"2015-12-02T19:48:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T00:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=81870"},"modified":"2015-12-02T14:50:06","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T19:50:06","slug":"how-big-the-gig-economy-really-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2015\/12\/how-big-the-gig-economy-really-is\/","title":{"rendered":"How Big the Gig Economy Really Is"},"content":{"rendered":"
December 2, 2015<\/div>
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By John Mauldin<\/span><\/h4>\n

There is growing awareness of what is being called the \u201cgig economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Uber driving or Airbnb. There are literally scores of websites and apps where you can advertise your services, get temporary or part-time work, and do so from anywhere you happen to be.<\/p>\n

Some \u201cgigs\u201d actually pay pretty good money, but they are for people with specialized skills who prefer to live a somewhat different lifestyle than the typical 9-to-5\u2019er does.<\/p>\n

My hedge fund friend Murat K\u00f6pr\u00fcl\u00fc has been busy researching and documenting this phenomenon and regularly regales me with what he finds.<\/p>\n

He goes and spends evenings and weekends with young gig workers, trying to figure out what it is they really do and how they make ends meet in New York City.<\/p>\n

It turns out they need a lot less to support their lifestyle than you might imagine, and they prefer working intermittent gigs, being able to do what they want, and having no boss.<\/p>

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A close look at the data indicates that the gig economy is indeed big and growing. But there is a great deal of debate among economists about how big it really is.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Much Bigger Than the Employment Data Suggests<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Gig workers don\u2019t seem to show up clearly in the BLS employment data.<\/p>\n

Typically, we would expect those working in the gig economy to appear in the self-employed category, but that category is actually drifting downward in numbers\u2014relatively speaking.<\/p>\n

But Harvard economist Larry Katz and Princeton\u2019s Alan Krueger, who are working on research to document the rise of the gig economy in America, says that our current measures ignore the bulk of the gig economy.<\/p>\n

From a\u00a0story at fusion.net<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Katz said two pieces of evidence suggest current measures of self-employment and multiple-job holding are \u201cmissing a large part\u00a0of the gig economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first is that the share of the employed (and of the adult population) filing a 1099 form, the tax document \u201cgig economy\u201d workers must file, increased in the 2000s, even as standard measures of self-employment declined in the 2000s.<\/p>\n

Other groups have confirmed this: Zen Payroll, a site that tracks the sharing economy,\u00a0found increases<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>in the share of 1099 workers across many major U.S. metros.<\/p>\n

\"Mauldin-Economics-Gig-Economy\"<\/p>\n

Source: Zen Payroll via Small Business Labs<\/em><\/p>\n

And data from research group EconomicModeling.com\u00a0show the share\u00a0<\/a>of traditional, 9-to-5 workers in the labor force has declined\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Mauldin-Economics-Gig-Economy\"<\/p>\n

Source: Fusion, data via EconomicModeling.com<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026 while those who categorize themselves as \u201cmiscellaneous\u00a0proprietors\u201d is climbing.<\/p>\n

\"Mauldin-Economics-Gig-Economy\"<\/p>\n

Source: Fusion, data via EconomicModeling.com<\/em><\/p>\n

A recent survey<\/a>\u00a0found 60 percent of such workers get at least 25 percent of their income from gig economy work.<\/p>\n

The problem with the BLS estimates is that they overlook a sizable chunk of the true gig economy.<\/p>\n

And this report absolutely squares with what my friend Murat\u2019s research is showing: that gig economy is not shrinking. On the contrary, it\u2019s on the rise, and a quite rapid rise.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Thoughts from the Frontline<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Follow Mauldin as he uncovers the truth behind, and beyond, the financial headlines in his free publication, Thoughts from the Frontline<\/em><\/a>. The publication explores developments overlooked by mainstream news to help you understand what\u2019s happening in the economy and navigate the markets with confidence.<\/p>\n

The article was excerpted from John F. Mauldin\u2019s Thoughts from the Frontline<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2015. Follow John Mauldin on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The article How Big the Gig Economy Really Is<\/a> was originally published at mauldineconomics.com<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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By John Mauldin There is growing awareness of what is being called the \u201cgig economy.\u201d It\u2019s not just Uber driving or Airbnb. There are literally scores of websites and apps where you can advertise your services, get temporary or part-time work, and do so from anywhere you happen to be. Some \u201cgigs\u201d actually pay pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81872,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81870\/revisions\/81872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}