{"id":155623,"date":"2020-11-13T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=155623"},"modified":"2020-11-12T19:05:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T00:05:02","slug":"4-gig-economy-trends-that-are-shaping-the-workplace-and-job-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2020\/11\/4-gig-economy-trends-that-are-shaping-the-workplace-and-job-market\/","title":{"rendered":"4 gig economy trends that are shaping the workplace and job market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>The gig economy has been a thriving sector of the job market that to varying degrees, has received little attention. However, it has been growing over the years, and thanks to COVID-19, exponential growth is anticipated in the coming years. Here we highlight four key gig economy trends that are shaping the local and global workplace and job markets.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without a doubt 2020 has been an unforgettable year. One of tremendous uncertainty and challenges to many, whilst also to some, a year of opportunity. Globally, unemployment rates have increased, with almost every sector being adversely affected. For sectors, such as aviation and hospitality, they are unlikely to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels for at least the next 12\u201418 months, or until there are authoritative treatments and\/or successful vaccines available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to keep afloat, and to a considerable degree, many organisations have trimmed what little fat they might have had, which might have included releasing some of their staff, or otherwise adjusting employment contracts, in order to rebalance inflows and outflows. As a result, many people who had been in stable and well-paying positions, have been experiencing considerable uncertainty in their employment status, along with their drops in their incomes, thus affecting their ability to successfully meet all of their obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Job loss, lower incomes and the uncertainty in the job market have pushed more people to pick up a second (or even a third) job. Many of those jobs tend to be part-time, and for a fixed term \u2013 gigs \u2013 to provide organisations with specific types of expertise to execute specific\/finite tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having said this, the image that usually comes to mind when one hears the term \u2018gig worker\u2019 might be the college student or young adult who has a part-time job, but has not settled into a \u2018stable career\u2019. However, the face of the gig worker has been changing over the years, and is no longer limited to the freelance writers and taxi drivers. Increasingly, highly educated and experienced professionals are also falling into this category \u2013 more so in the age of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider the following statistics in relation to the gig economy, which have been collected by <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalcounselor.com\/gig-economy-statistics\/#:~:text=Top%2010%20Most%20Fascinating%20Gig,felt%20they%20had%20more%20flexibility.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Capital Counselor<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>60% of the United States workforce will be independent by 2027<\/li><li>By 2023, the gross volume of the gig economy will grow to USD\u00a0455 billion<\/li><li>A 513% year-on-year increase in new gig workers was reported in Japan since the coronavirus outbreak.<\/li><li>40% of organisations plan on using more gig workers, in the next 5 years<\/li><li>The gig economy is expected to grow by a 17.4% compound annual growth rate by 2023.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In light of the above, the gig economy is not only growing, but will soon become a significant portion of the workplace and job market. Hence in the coming years, here are few of the trends that have been projected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. &nbsp;More organisations will use gig workers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the challenges organisations can experience when establishing staff positions is ensuring that there is adherence to all of the requisite employment\u2013related obligations, such as with regards to taxes, leave, etc. In addition to the remuneration paid directly to employees, there are additional costs to an organisation, including for administrative and personnel-related management, plus taxes and statutory deductions payable to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In trying to operate more efficiently, there are likely to financial and resource savings benefits from securing expertise as and when needed, rather than having individuals in full-time employ, for skills that might be not be utilised continuously. Hence, more and more organisations are likely to rely on gig workers or freelancers, who are hired to complete very specific tasks over a finite period. Typically, and under such arrangements, the worker is an independent contractor, who has some flexibility and control over his\/her working arrangements, and in turn, the hiring entity is not obligated to comply with all of the standard labour-related entitlements provided to employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2.&nbsp; Workers can be recruited from and can work from anywhere<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>COVID-19 has also highlighted the fact that it is indeed possible for a lot of people to work from home successfully. Similarly, organisations are also realising that they might not necessarily need to have all of their employees convening at their premises at the same time, every day, to work. These realisations are opening up a broad range of opportunities, including the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>New hires are likely to be expected to work remotely, which could be for the entire term of their contract, or to work remotely predominately, with regular visits to a fixed office, and<\/li><li>The constraints associated with hiring individuals living outside a specific radius, or based overseas, are eroding. Once again, the growing acceptance of remote working arrangements \u2013 both by organisations and individuals \u2013 means that employers can widen the recruitment pool, in order to get the best fit for a position.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Within the construct of the gig worker and the gig economy, remote working has been the norm in several quarters, as experienced remote workers can be highly productive when compared with the standard workforce. Into the future, remote working arrangements are expected to increase, as more people and organisations become comfortable with the mutual benefits that can be realised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3.&nbsp; The number and emphasis of online talent platforms will increase<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Typically, if an individual or an organisation needed short-term, specialist help, they would seek referrals from friends and colleagues. However, depending on the situation, the hire can be hit-or-miss. Further, and increasingly in organisations, there might be need for greater transparency in those procurement exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upwork.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Upwork<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fiverr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fiverr<\/a> are still two of the more widely known freelancing platforms, new ones are beginning to emerge, which for example, are focussed on a specific region, or a specific field of work. Examples include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alifery.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alifery<\/a> is an Australian platform specialising in the legal, finance and consultancy sectors, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehivefreelancing.co\/\">The <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehivefreelancing.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hive<\/a> is a recently launched freelance jobs marketplace for the Caribbean region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hence, as the gig economy as a whole continues to strengthen, organisations, and even individuals, are becoming more aware of the broad range of expertise that can procured, which in turn is driving the number of platforms, and correspondingly their emphases, that are beginning to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4.&nbsp; More regulation of the work arrangements for gig workers will occur<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, traditionally, the gig worker was seen as a small segment of the entire workforce, with few provisions or protections in place. Although generally the gig worker tends to enjoy higher remuneration than the standard employee and some flexibility in their working arrangements, they also tend to get none of entitlements, such as with respect to leave, established working hours, overtime pay, etc., that the average employee would get. However, and over the years, there has been increased litigation, particularly in developed countries, where individuals hired as freelancers (or gig workers) have claimed that they were being exploited by the hiring entity, and in some instances were not able to earn a living wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, the courts and legislators have begun to intervene. Thanks to the precedent that is being established in those jurisdictions, our local courts may have a basis to be guided by those rulings and legal provisions, which ultimately may lead to more local regulation being developed to address that deficiency, especially as the gig work market continues to grow as expected in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image credits:  Alltechbuzz (<a href=\"http:\/\/pixabay.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pixabay<\/a>);  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The gig economy has been a thriving sector of the job market that to varying degrees, has received little attention. However, it has been growing over the years, and thanks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[71,40,430,15],"class_list":["post-155623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ict-tech","tag-businesses","tag-expertise-hr","tag-gig-economy","tag-trends","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Freelance-Freelancer-Entrepreneur-Gig-Worker-Economy-Alltechbuzz-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-Eu3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155623"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155633,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155623\/revisions\/155633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}