The 9-to-5 slog, the cattle-call commute, the ballbusting from your boss...is all this making you daydream about having more independence and freedom over your job and maybe even the potential for higher earning power? Well, welcome to the gig economy!
What is "the gig economy"?
"Gig," as it's used here, refers to any kind of paid work that isn't a regular full-time job. Technically, the gig economy began the first time a caveman offered someone a handful of pebbles to fillet a mammoth he'd slain. The reason we're hearing about it a lot these days is because of a huge surge in the number of people relying on gigs, not traditional jobs, as their main source of income.
Why is this happening?
Computers, mainly. When e-mail really caught on in the mid-1990s, many workers found that not only could they work from home, they could also work for more than one employer at a time.
Companies, in turn, started hiring more workers on a short-term, per project basis, saving the expense of housing full-timers in physical offices.
As the Internet evolved and smartphones appeared, whole new gig-working professions were born: Uber driver, eBayer, Etsyist, Airbnber...Technology had supercharged the ability of supply to find demand-which is what capitalism is all about.
So it's an Internet thing?
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