Understanding the gig economy

Abstract

Gig economy refers to short-term contracts with employees engaged in temporary freelance work. It is different from a traditional economy where employees work full time with employers and seek to build lifetime careers. The emergence of digital platforms has accelerated the trend towards gig economy in recent times. The Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) defines gig economy as the trend of using online platforms to find small jobs, sometimes completed immediately after request (essentially, on-demand). The workers who are a part of this system accept short jobs from those available typically on a digital platform and move from “gig to gig”.