[EVENT SPEAKERS DIARY]
GIG ECONOMY
Challenges and Opportunities
This trend is fast catching up in
Asian countries also.
Ajay Sharma
Founder – Get Me Experts & FlexiOrg
G
ig economy is characterised
by labour market, when it
operates on the prevalence
of short-term contracts or freelance
work, as opposed to permanent
jobs. In the gig economy, instead of
a regular wage, workers get paid
for the ‘gigs’ they do, such as a food
delivery or a car journey. A few years
ago, nobody could have thought that
doing a small gig in exchange for
74
an hourly payment could become
someone’s full-time job.
A recent study by the McKinsey
Global Institute, ‘Independent
work: Choice, Necessity, and the Gig
Economy’, reveals that “up to 162
million people in Europe and the
United States — or 20-30 percent of
the working-age population engages
in some form of independent work.”
| Vol. 9 Issue 6 • Sep-Oct 2018, Noida / Pre-Event Edition
Challenges in Gig Economy
Advantages aside, gig economy
workforce is not without its
challenges. According to a Time’s
magazine survey, freelance workers
and contractors earn 28 percent less
than their regular counterparts;
however, that’s only because they
work fewer hours. According to
the survey, more than 80 percent of
companies that use independent
contractors say that they do so
because they can quickly adjust the
size of their workforce, save money
on benefi ts, and tailor the worker to
a specifi c task.