The Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) recently released their U.S. Gig Economy - 2018 Edition report. They found that about 48 million Americans are in the gig economy, which is 31% of the workforce.
They also found about 13.7 million Americans are human cloud workers.
They define the human cloud as:
"... all manner of companies that facilitate direct, digitally-enabled work arrangements, from sourcing a worker through payment."
They've also identified and defined three key human cloud business models: online staffing, crowdsourcing and online work services. These are shown in their excellent chart below.
SIA's clients are staffing firms - including cloud labor firms - and companies that hire workers from staffing and cloud labor firms. This provides them with an insiders view of the gig economy and cloud labor.
Much of their research, unfortunately, is behind their paywall.
But they do provide a lot of useful research summaries and information for free on their Staffing Stream blog. It's well worth reading.
In terms of subscribing to their full research service, as Ferris Bueller said "if you have the means ...".
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