In my report, How Big is the “Gig” Economy? What about “Permatemps”? I accidentally put commas in the wrong place when reporting the estimated increase in “gig” employment.
With commas in the correct place, the estimated increase in gig employment between 2010 and 2015 is 10,058,540 not 1,005,854 as originally shown.
The BLS shows employment rose 10,628,000 in the same period.
Thus, nearly the entire increase in employment (94.6%) since 2010 has been in the gig economy!
Gig Statistics
- Total employment in December 2010: 139,301,000
- Total employment December 2015: 149,929,000
- 2010 “gig” employment (10% of line 1): 13,930,100
- 2015 “gig” employment (16% of line 2): 23,988,640
I used “Civilian Employment“, a household survey measure, in my calculations, for reasons fully explained in the original article.
According to the BLS, the growth in employment from December 2010 to December 2015 was 10,628,000. This number was reported correctly.
The study estimates 10% of employment in 2010 was gigs compared to 16% of employment in 2015.
Putting commas in the right place on lines three and four, the increase in gig employment in the same period is 10,058,540 not 1,005,854 as originally shown.
Only one person caught this error. Thanks Jan “JdJ”!
Virtually the entire increase in employment (94.6%) since 2010 was in the “gig” economy!
Mike “Mish” Shedlock.
And pray tell is”GIG’?
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2016 20:23:00 +0000 To: axpl@msn.com
well, if you read the original article you would have a complete discussion of what a gig is, and to whom.
Mish
I’m pretty sure that the “gig” is about up. Part time jobs are becoming the norm as pay and benefits decline. There will be a tipping point…there is ALWAYS a tipping point. Will we see it or will it only be viewable in the review mirror like all of our recessions that we know we are in but are never declared until over?
“gig” = part-time.
The US is practically a ‘part-time’ economy already… and if TPTB shove the TPP down our throats, then stick a fork in Uncle Sam.
fascinated by “Mishega”…is this from the yiddish word which my best translation is crazy or wild one?
“Mish” is simply the first two letters of my first and last name.
Someone has “Mish.Com” but it is not used.
GEA is global economic analysis
I did not pick “Mish” it picked me!
This dates back to 2000 when I has a stock message board on Silicon Invester and the Motley Fool and I posted under the name mishedlo (which happened to be my userID at Harris bank).
Everyone started truncating it and people simply referred to me as “Mish”. That seemed catchy enough so I started using it.
I worked for numerous banks and every one one of them created userIDs based off real names. UserIDs on mainframes are generally 7-8 characters. So if you know someone who works at a large bank, you can probably guess their userID. The first Joe Smith would be JoSmith, the second JoSmith2.
Some security huh!
Mish
Bankers are wizards of id.
I was listening to a podcast interview with Douglas Rushkoff, who claims the middle class was at its wealthiest back when everything was a gig. The blacksmith contracted out his work piece-wise. The farmer traded his produce for other goods. This was before corporations came into being and the environment and laws shifted to making people work for corporations. In other words, a LONG time ago. If you believe Rushkoff, gigs are the cure for an ailing system. Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. I do know the online entrepreneurial world is growing at a rapid pace though.
Project work, which is essentially what “gigs” are, are, for most tasks that needs performing, a more efficient way to organize the labor required to have them performed. In the great scheme of things, few tasks are optimally performed by someone doing the same thing for the same amount of time always. Just imagine trying to run a small family farm by having one guy sow 40 hrs a week all year. Another plow. Another sell the stuff…. It’s silly.
The only way to try fitting that kind of square pegs into round holes, is to make every organization a gigantic multinational, so that the sower can literally do that consistently, somewhere in the world, for some kind of crop produced by the mega agribusiness. The Oil Companies were doing things that way for a long time: Have so many projects in the pipeline, that the exploration guys could be exploring, the drillers drill, then the production guys take over….. But even at the scale of Exxon, it turns out hiring in people on an as needed basis, is more efficient.
There must be some equation of efficiency crossed with consistency -consistently ploughing the surplus into the sum negative yield territory at the expense of the positive rest because there is a mutual benefit somewhere in having an inefficient excess capacity at hand .
An example would be having a shopkeeper present at all times – it suits customers even though the shop is empty half the day .
I say an equation in the sense that there will be a limit to the available positive effect of it all … political incorporation of society into the wider economy , corporate flattening , financed inclusion , don’t make much sense when they become an end instead of a means . Those in power might see it all as a means , but they tend to have objectives that are polarized in terms of their own achievement respect to a levelled society .
Rushkoff – master of the obvious. The middle class was wealthiest when there was no income tax, no central bank, no compulsory education, and no social safety net. Most people in today’s middle class already know this.
Does this mean we will all be day laborers, standing in line at home depot with the illegals?
What is “gig”?
project work. part-time. contractor. 1099.
Think Uber driver, or Elance.
I’m surprised at the number of people that are not familiar with “GIG”. Musicians call them gigs. A job at a bar or club that lasts a night or a weekend. Lots of guitar players don’t have a case for their guitar so they put it in a “gig bag” to take it where they are playing.
In the ‘new normal’ peak debt/nearly unlimited credit world of today, net real-terms “economic growth” has probably been zero for some years, once the expansion of the money & credit supply (and the resulting massive malinvestment) has been factored out.
Given that, profitability will continue to shrivel – even faster now that cost savngs have been wrung out of businesses. The “gig economy” is the way of the future in such a ‘just-in-time’, short-termist world.
gig is something you do to catch fish
Have someone throw them at you ?
Would ruin your gig-line , you’d get gigged for it , unless you don’t gig-up for fishing that is.
If you get gigged-up with a Centurianne then the fishing is usually first , ahem , but I should watch my own gig here in case we wrestle the detail and you bring out your gig , a wrestling one , not fishing one, that is … but I guess the choice would be yours if you were to scar yourself or (try to) harpoon me .
I’m just pixels (as far as you know) , so the advantage is mine – gigs up .
I giged a tarpon once. Nice. In Florida, it is actually illegal to gig a fish. You are supposed to catch it like a man. I prefer pipe bombs. Load one with 1/2 lb of black powder and drop it over-board right when it explodes and you can get a bunch of mullet and bass.
My kids like to make their own pipe bombs with Sodium. Stuff burns in water and really makes one hell of an explosion. Fish dead everywhere. We even got a manatee to fly out of the water with a pound of Sodium. WOW. Didn’t need no gig.
Giggins if fun for mullet. Those stupid fish are vegetarians and you can’t get them with hook and shrimp. Either you learn to use a cast net or use a Bernelli Shotgun with #4 shot and blow the little creeps out of the water. My 9 year old daughter just loves blasting them with her Remington Semi-Automatic Shotgun. Family fun. Good day with daddy and the family blowing mullet, snook, tarpon, etc. out of the water with 12 g buck-shot . Good Family time.
My 7 year old son can really pump-action his MP S/W Gun. He is fast. The other day we were illegally “fishing” for grouper and he blew about a dozen out of the water. Mom loved it since we are true to Fish Friday, being that we honor the Lord, and she was so happy when Jr. blasted them right out of the water (put a whole in the bottom of the boat, buy, hey, boys will be boys). I told him many times to keep the fully loaded shot-gun facing the water, and not his sister, but, hey, when you are having quality fun time with the family, what is a few rounds going off here and there.
See, ya !!!!
Ha :-).
Closest I got to Sodium was trying to reproduce a class experiment when I got the keys to the cabinet while cleaning out mouse cages. Explosion nearly blew up the lab and threw a friend over a desk. I had some explaining to do.
But then the serious explosions are in war zones, something you never forget once you experience.
Care.
So, Mike, if we have the “gig” jobs up 10 million, and we can assume the majority of those are NOT benefit creating, NOR unemployment insurance covered, the “record” number of weeks under 300k for unemployment insurance filing is just another lie of the Obama economy.
Couple with the fact that we have only 5.5 million more jobs than in 2008, and 3.5 million of those are part time. And how many trillions did they throw at it?
Bingo. Obama and his “recovery” are a fraud.
And what of the stats that show virtually ALL jobs have gone to immigrants, legal and otherwise?
A gig entrepreneur washes windshields at the gas station.
While a permatemp solopreneur stations washes shielding gas winds ?
Hi Mike, thank you for your articles on the “gig” economy. Can you expand on what you think the impact is on wage inflation please?
Thank you