Study: Connecticut’s ‘gig’ economy is no giant
Recent years saw no large surge for state, according to the numbers
Despite the ubiquity of Uber, Airbnb and other app-based services, there is little evidence of a significant surge in Connecticut’s “gig” economy over the past few years compared to overall employment, according to an analysis published Monday by the state Department of Labor.
The state study comes on the heels of a Conference Board report that found the U.S. economy supports about equal percentages of freelance jobs and other moonlighting opportunities as two decades ago, despite a 46 percent increase in 2016 of jobs in the catchall category for taxi services that lumps in Uber and Lyft.
The U.S. Department of Labor and Census Bureau undertake monthly surveys of households that include questions on whether people consider themselves independent contractors or otherwise selfemployed. That figure has stayed constant for 20 years, according to Patrick Flaherty, assistant director of research for the state Department of Labor, who examined the numbers in the December installment of “The Connecticut Economic Digest” published in conjunction with the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Connecticut and other states are undertaking a deeper study to assess the overall economic impact of nontraditional jobs on the economy, Flaherty said.
“Unfortunately there is no clear answer because, by its nature, ‘gig’ or ‘on-demand’ work is not documented as well as traditional jobs,” Flaherty said in the study. “Even if there is a rise in nontraditional work, a further question is how much of this is voluntary and how many ‘gig’ workers would prefer to have traditional payroll jobs.”
On the Indeed job board — itself hiring 500 people at its Stamford office backed by state incentives — just 3.6 percent of openings specify opportunities as contractual, as the case with freelance work. That is slightly below the rate of overall “contingent” jobs nationally, as defined in a June study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS found the percentage has come down slightly over the past dozen years.
Still, previous studies have suggested one in every three workers derives at least a small percentage of overall income from informal, secondary sources of employment. And in 2014, the state labor department projected a 7.1 percent increase in gig-economy jobs in the subsequent decade, a pace that would put the sector among the 10 fastest growing in Connecticut.
Payroll processing firms and payment card providers have been attempting to create standardized payments and benefits platforms geared toward gig economy workers on the expectation the sector will bear increasing heft.
“How do you look at ways to let that follow the employee, as opposed to being so client-focused, employer-focused?” said Paychex CEO Martin Mucci, speaking on an October conference call. “We are certainly preparing for that, and ... you are going to see much more of a shift toward the employee and how they can carry information with them.”