What's Your Gig?

Why Gig economy is making stronger inroads into asia pacific, with more firms adapting it to their needs.

- Pooja Singh

Are you coming across more people with job titles like ‘self-employed’, ‘freelancer’ and ‘entrepreneur’? There’s a good reason for this: self-employment is becoming common; thanks to the growing gig economy. A recent global Deloitte survey of over 13,000 millennials found almost half of respondents believe gig workers earn as much as those in full-time jobs, and the same number think gig workers have a better work-life balance (see ‘Future of Work’).

Eight in 10 talent managers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region hire or use gig workers, says a 2018 report from KellyOCG, the outsourcing and consulting group of US-based Kelly Services. International accounting firm Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report states that gig employment has become mainstream. Essentially, a gig worker is anyone engaged in independent work in any capacity—online or offline, with regular or occasional participation, and for primary or supplemental earnings. This includes diversified workers with many sources of incomes, contract workers or freelancers, small business owners, temporary workers or moonlighters.

THE WAY FORWARD

Advocates of gig economy bill them as a way to trade unemployment, burnout, or hating one’s job for freedom, flexibility, and financial gains. Critics, meanwhile, point to the costly trade-offs: unstable earnings, few or no benefits, reduced job security and stalled career advancement.