How Big is the Gig? The Extensive Margin, The Intensive Margin, and The Hidden Margin

Anat Bracha and Mary Burke

Labour Economics, 2021, vol. 69, issue C

Abstract: This paper presents survey measures of informal "gig" work in the United States along both the extensive and intensive margins. Focusing on labor-intensive activities, the total amount of gig work performed by U.S. household heads in 2015 was equivalent to 3.77 million full-time jobs, of which 20 percent came from online work. We also find that this nonstandard work is partly hidden: over 15 percent of non-retired gig workers would get classified as not in the labor force, 5 percent would get classified as unemployed, and the full-time employment rate would increase significantly if informal hours are fully counted.

Keywords: Gig economy; Informal work; Intensive margin; Hours; Employment statistics; Current Population Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E26 J21 J22 J46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537121000099
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:69:y:2021:i:c:s0927537121000099

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2021.101974

Access Statistics for this article

Labour Economics is currently edited by A. Ichino

More articles in Labour Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().