The gig economy is by no means a new concept, but it has expanded greatly over the past decade.

Today millions of workers worldwide are enticed to the unbounded realm of independent work engagement with businesses, and this is commonly known as the ‘gig economy. Thanks to the transformative gig economy platforms such as People per Hour, Hire able and Upwork, freelance workers now have access to larger, more transparent platforms to ally with buyers of their services. In simple words gig economy refers to the growing number of workers abandoning traditional 9 to 5 employment in favor of working independently on a task-by-task basis for various employers.

Here are a few ways the emerging gig economy is likely to shape the future employment:

Jobs will oscillate with gig workers:

According to a survey report the number of self-employed individuals increased by over 19 percent from 2005 to 2015.When compared with different generations like Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennial‘s are restless, agile, untiring and are unafraid to break the principles. They consider themselves as dependable, self-disciplined, enthusiastic, and always open to new experiences. This makes millennial worker’s attracted to jobs that are entrepreneurial and allows them to take ownership.

Education Assistance Will Entice Workforce:

A majority of the gig economy workers worldwide belongs to the millennial cohort and usually start working even before they complete their education.  This section of the workforce usually chooses to finish education at its own pace and plenty of – particularly women – are likely to drop out of the job market to continue their learning. This means employers providing education assistance are going to be very important perk for the millennial gig staff trying to reinforce their career continuity. A company-sponsored education is one way to make sure that gig workers remain in the labor market by being tied to a particular employer.

Specialized Skill Development:

Workers in the gig economy will more likely want to work in creative work fields like arts, content writing, construction, and administrative roles. However, with emergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), vacancies in administrative support roles such as receptionists, Customer service, data entry, will decline. This will drive the gig workers to retrain and re-skill themselves to become specialized in their respective fields. To catch up with this trend, employers too will offer specialized skill development opportunities and training programs to employees in these roles.

Shifting Mindset of Work:

The growth of the gig economy represents a shift within the mindset of people to read work. Instead of a lot ancient system where an employee works regular for one employer, some employee prefer to enter the gig economy for the flexibleness, freedom and private fulfillment that it provides them. Workers now express interest in controlling and autonomizing their career paths.

Adapt to changes

The gig economy comes with each advantage and challenges. For many workers, the enlargement of the gig economy has provided new sources of revenue and work opportunities. The gig workers also called the freelancers work without the benefits provided by ancient employment strategies; thus, they’ll end up doing social services. A growing gig economy may result in higher economic growth and increased taxes or other forms of revenue.

To summarize the whole concept of traditional work is changing. Workers no longer like to be tied to a desk all day. Millennials and Gen Z crave ownership in their work – something which is very difficult to find in typical full-time job will dominate the world of work over the next few decades.

Companies will have to adapt, too. In the era of constant change, they need to become more flexible, agile and streamlined. Having a wide workforce of permanent or full-time employees will make this increasingly difficult.

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