[EVENT SPEAKERS DIARY]
HOW BUSINESS CAN BENEFIT
FROM THE GIG ECONOMY
This real hard data is from the US Bureau of Labor
Statistics fi rst offi cial reading1 (released June 2018) of
the number of Americans relying on temporary work,
freelancing, and on-demand apps to make ends meet.
Divyan Gupta
Founder & CEO of Keshiha Services
16.5 million people work in “contingent” or
“alternative work arrangements”.
Of the above, 3.8 percent of workers or nearly 6
million people held contingent jobs while another
10.6 million worked as independent contractors, on-
call workers, temporary help agency workers and
for contract fi rms. These nearly 6 million contingent
workers are persons who do not expect their jobs to last
or who reported that their jobs are temporary.
76
In short, the “Gig Economy” size for just one
economy. And it continues to increase every year across
the globe.
These numbers dwarf other more high-profi le
industries. For instance, the US Coal mining industry
employs about 80,000 workers while steel employs about
150,000. In India, we don’t have researched numbers
from any reliable sources. However anecdotally, it is a
well-known fact that India is in the Top 5 countries in
the world to have freelancers especially in the areas of
web and mobile development, web designing, internet
research and data entry. As far as gig workers go, it’s
mostly workers aligned with either the new on-demand
app businesses or the rural workers who shift from gig to
gig basis seasonality.
| Vol. 9 Issue 6 • Sep-Oct 2018, Noida / Pre-Event Edition