Fusion's Harvard economist: All net U.S. job growth since 2005 has been in contracting gigs covers a study by two noted academic economists that found all net employment growth in the U.S. economy since 2005 appears to have occurred in alternative work arrangements.
In other words, contingent jobs have been growing quite rapidly over the past decade. Key quote from the article:
As measured by Katz and Krueger, the share of workers in alternative work arrangements climbed from 10.1% in 2005 to 15.8% in 2015. This implies that the number of workers employed in alternative arrangements increased by 9.4 million (66.5%) from 14.2 million in February 2005 to 23.6 million in November 2015.
The study re-created the 2005 Alternative Work Supplement done by the BLS. The BLS has not fielded this survey since 2005 due to a lack of funding, but plans to run it again in May of 2017.
The AWS and the Katz-Krueger study define “alternative” as any type of temporary, gig, or contract work, including work found via online platforms like Uber.
The article chart below (click to enlarge) shows the growth of alternative work.
An important point about this study is it focuses on primary sources of employment. This means side gigs and second jobs are not included in these numbers.
The Katz-Krueger study is getting extensive press coverage.
Most of articles express surprise at the finding that the contingent workforce has grown over the past decade. The media is also surprised that most of this growth came from off-line activities instead of online platforms like Uber and Elance.
A good example is the New York Times article With ‘Gigs’ Instead of Jobs, Workers Bear New Burdens. Key quote:
If you believe the Silicon Valley sloganeers, we are in a “gig economy,” where work consists of a series of short-term jobs coordinated through a mobile app ...But anyone who cares about the future of work in the United States shouldn’t focus too narrowly on the novelty of people making extra money using their mobile phones.
There’s a bigger shift underway. That’s a key implication of new research that indicates the proportion of American workers who don’t have traditional jobs — who instead work as independent contractors, through temporary services or on-call — has soared in the last decade. They account for vastly more American workers than the likes of Uber alone.
These finding are, of course, not the least bit surprising to anyone who has been paying any attention to this space.
The good news is the growth of the contingent workforce is finally starting to be broadly accepted.
Steve, I agree this is important news and it's good for businesses to be aware of the growth of contract work. Thanks for posting!
I also think many traditional employees are looking at their work as one in a line of jobs over their careers. It's a more "gig" attitude toward permanent work.
Posted by: Carol Bleyle | April 12, 2016 at 10:20 AM