About 3.9 million Americans are working in the on-demand economy, up from 3.2 million this time last year.
The number is forecast to grow to 9.2 million by 2021. This is about a 23% compounded annual growth rate.
This is part of the findings of the recently released Intuit 2016 Dispatch From the New Economy: The On-Workforce study.
This is the 2nd year of this study and Emergent Research again partnered with Intuit on this research.
As with last year, the study defines workers in the on-demand economy as those who find work via online marketplaces, apps and web sites that connect buyers and sellers of talent.
For this year's study we surveyed 6,247 independent workers who find work assigments via twelve on-demand economy and online talent marketplaces. See the methodology section below for more details.
As with last year, there is lots of interesting data in the study presentation. Key findings include:
- On-Demand Work is Used to Supplement Existing Income: The average person working an on-demand job spends 11 hours per week, and earns 24 percent of their household income via on-demand work. Forty-one percent also have a traditional full-or part-time job.
- On-Demand Work Fills Near-Term Financial Needs: Sixty-six percent of people working on-demand report having variable monthly income. Forty-one percent say that a financial hardship – such as a job loss, medical problem, or unexpected major expense – impacted them during the prior year. By comparison, just 18 percent of all Americans in a recent U.S. Federal Reserve survey reported encountering a financial emergency.
- On-Demand Work Is Used To Build A Sustainable Future: Many people are leaning on on-demand economy work to either develop a new business, or to supplement and expand an existing business. Thirty-seven percent already own a business, and 21 percent want to build a business.
- There is General Satisfaction With On-Demand Work: Thirty-eight percent of people working in the on-demand economy feel they are better off, while only 14 percent believe they are worse off. Eighty-one percent plan to continue working an on-demand job over the next 12 months, and 67 percent of people are satisfied with their on-demand work.
We'll cover various finding from this study in more detail over the next few weeks.
2016 Intuit On-Demand Economy Workforce study methodology
A total of 6,247 workers who find work opportunities via online platforms completed an online survey between Sept. 20 and Nov. 18, 2016. Intuit and Emergent Research partnered with 12 talent platform/marketplace companies who provided access to their active independent workers/providers.
Participating platforms include Lyft, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Upwork, TaskRabbit, Wonolo, MBO Partners, OnForce, Work Market, Catalant, Field Nation, Kelly Services and Avvo.
This was the 2nd year of this study and the 2015 study used the same methodology. In 2015 11 companies participated as partners and 8 firms participated both years.
The overall results for 2016 are consistent with the results from 2015.
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