Posted on 09/06/2016 3:31:25 AM PDT by expat_panama
...Popular attention focuses on Uber and similar internet-based networks that unite buyers and sellers...
...the gig economy is overrated. It's not the main engine of change. It accounts for only about 0.5% of employment...
...In 2015, these unconventional jobs represented 15.8% of the U.S. total. That's almost one in six. What's more, these "alternative work arrangements" are growing rapidly; in 2005, they were only 10.7% of all jobs. Some industries have long relied on subcontracting (construction, trucking) or temporary work (retailing)...
...The "alternative work arrangements" fall into four categories: (1) independent contractors and freelancers... ...(2) on-call workers who have designated times when they may (or may not) be summoned to the job — a practice common in fast food; (3) workers from temporary work agencies; (4) workers provided by contract firms...
...To some extent, these jobs reflect America's vaunted flexibility...
...the proliferation of "alternative work arrangements" threatens to split the labor market undesirably between "insiders" and "outsiders." The insiders have reasonably stable career jobs with generous fringe benefits; the outsiders live more precariously ...
...The gig economy has been hyped. It poses as the labor market's new reality. It isn't...
...What's needed is a check on potential employer abuse. The good news is that American workers may be retrieving some of their lost bargaining power...
...Other forces push in the same direction. Immigration seems likely to abate...
...We are already seeing evidence of a more balanced labor market. Wage and salary increases now average about 3.5% annually, up from slightly more than 2% in late 2013, reports the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. This could be prologue. On Labor Day 2016, the great hope for American workers is that we are quietly entering an era of labor scarcity.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
this guy is a lifetime career reporter from the washington post (not an economist).
so, caveat emptor.
(and imho, caveat emptor even if he were an economist)
Don’t need a labor force if all the work is outsourced overseas.
Tell that to a fine young man in our relationship who graduated summa cum laude last year and cannot find work after many resumes and interviews. He is thinking of going to England because rumor has it that a young White man with excellent credentials can find work there. What a shame that we lie to our children about the opportunities in their future if they work hard and do everything right.
we have always experienced a labor shortage even throught the worst period of Obama unemployment
There are jobs but not capable workers in the locations where needed. Those who can’t summon the gumption to get up for work on time or don’t come in that all are not suitable. Those that use drugs are not suitable. Those that are at point A and not point C are not suitable. Those that were once employed but lack the skills needed are not suitable. Those that insist on doing what they always did are not suitable.
Absent mental change of attitude, the scaricty will remain
What is his degree?
Low-end jobs are being increasingly automated, and will NEVER come back. Automation is taking a toll on middle-class jobs as well: when was the last time you engaged the services of a HUMAN Travel Agent in their office, as opposed to online, or on the over end of a 1-800 call . . .
Exactly; reality is what it is.
Every last job. The word is that even U.S. manual work is being outsourced by using remotely piloted mops and shovels run by guys in India on computer terminals.
The other thing driving the gig economy: if you were working 39 and now work 29, many of those people now drive for Uber or work on other freelancing tasks to make up for the lost income due to Obamacare’s redefinition of full time to 29 hours a week.
Skills mismatch - millions of skilled labor/blue collar jobs unfilled and millions of college dropouts and grads who were trained to be administrators and knowledge workers we don’t need
This may actually get more people to support a large welfare safety net. More and more people not getting benefits from full-time employment will expect them from some other source, i.e. government-subsidized health care, EBT cards, etc.
Maybe more people living together (e.g. kids in their parents' basement) will get us back to depending on our friends and families during lean times, but it may be too late for that with the expansion of government we've seen over the past few decades.
Labor Day when there is no work
http://www.batr.org/negotium/090215.html
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