The share of people working in “alternative” work arrangements, an important government measure of the prevalence of “gig” work, is shrinking rather than rising, according to newly released BLS data. Alternative in this case means people who are not employed directly or regularly at the place they usually work, including independent contractors and temp workers.
The new data show that the share of Americans in gig work fell to 10.1% of the labor force last year, from 10.9% in 2005, the last time the BLS studied these work arrangements. This challenges research from renowned economists Lawrence Katz of Harvard and Alan Krueger of Princeton, who estimated in December 2016 that alternative work had jumped to 15.8% of all workers, accounting for almost all of US job creation since 2005.
Independent contract work saw the largest decline. Contractors accounted for 7.4% of all workers in 2005, but just 6.9% in 2017. The share of workers in temp jobs, on the books of contract firms, or who work on-call held steady between 2005 and 2017.
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