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October 25, 2018 | Report
Business executives may be under the impression that the share of nontraditional workers in the US labor force (independent contractors, temporary help workers, or those hired by outsourcing firms) is growing fast. However, this study finds that the hype about the growth of this segment of the workforce is out of line with hard data. The share of nontraditional workers may be no different than it was twenty years ago. However, the emergence of online labor platforms—though they currently represent a tiny share of total hours worked in the US economy—may present new opportunities for businesses to meet labor demands.
Business executives may be under the impression that the share of nontraditional workers in the US labor force (independent contractors, temporary help workers, or those hired by outsourcing firms) is growing fast—and fear they are not keeping up with the trend of hiring more of these workers. These concerns did not appear out of the blue: studies in recent years promoted the impression of a growing nontraditional workforce, as did the emergence of online labor platforms such as Upwork, TaskRabbit, and Amazon Mechanical Turk.
However, this study finds that the hype about the growth of the nontraditional workforce is out of line with hard data. It turns out that in 2017, the share of nontraditional workers was no different than it was twenty years ago. While the number of people earning income through online labor market platforms is growing, except for the transportation sector, these platforms represent a tiny share of income and total hours worked in the US economy.
The case for employing nontraditional workers is not new. Nontraditional work offers employers the flexibility to coordinate the right number of workers with the right amount of work when needed, increasing productivity and lowering costs. (A companion piece, Nontraditional Workers: The Hype, CHRO Predictions, and Impact to Your Workforce, discusses how some businesses have attracted, managed, and engaged nontraditional workers to gain the most value from this segm
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