The gig economy is fueling this recovery
Elance Blog served up economic wisdom that seems to confuse some economists: If the economy is growing, dramatic increases in productivity can only cover so much of that improvement. And so, if the Labor Department keeps reporting that jobs are lost, who’s doing all that work that’s expanding the economy?
Well, for one thing, labor statistics related to the self-employed (or non-employer businesses, in government lingo) are excluded. So while “jobs” are being lost, “gigs” by the self-employed are being found — but are unreported.
Writes Elance:
“Consider this piece of data from the Labor Department’s recent report: the number of self-employed Americans grew by 126,000 in the last quarter. Add to that another telling statistic: the number of temporary jobs has increased by 250,000 in the last quarter….Our so-called jobless recovery is nothing more than an illusion. What we are experiencing is a long-predicted structural change in the job market. In the span of a single generation, we’ve gone from “company man” to being our own man or woman, thanks, in part by, to advances in computer and telecommunications technology.
Elance is in a perfect position to observe this phenomenon: they are helping to make the metaphorical “labor market” into an actual market, where those who have a project can find self-employed individuals who can carry it out. According to the Elance Online Talent Report, “more than 100,000 businesses listed 300,000 new jobs last year (on such job matching services as Elance). Last month alone, the number of jobs posted grew by 30 percent from the previous month.”
This may end up being a jobless recovery — because of a “gig” explosion. Advances in telecommunications and technology are not just changing every industry they touch — they are changing the very nature of labor and work.
See also on SmallBusiness.com