Supporting Workers in the New Gig Economy

From the hos­pi­tal­i­ty to retail indus­tries, more work­ers are being sched­uled and paid on an as-need­ed basis instead of hav­ing steady hours and earn­ings — an arrange­ment often referred to as gig work. Dur­ing a recent webi­nar, the Casey Foun­da­tion and a pan­el of work­force experts explored this chang­ing land­scape and shared strate­gies to sup­port job seek­ers and employ­ers as they nav­i­gate it.

Sev­er­al of the rec­om­men­da­tions they dis­cussed are fea­tured in a new pub­li­ca­tion, Beyond Gig Work: Pub­lic Mar­kets for Irreg­u­lar Employ­ment. It high­lights lessons learned from an online plat­form pilot­ed in the Unit­ed King­dom that has made it eas­i­er for indi­vid­u­als to piece togeth­er jobs by con­nect­ing them with employ­ers — as well as insights from 25 work­force bod­ies about adopt­ing a sim­i­lar approach in the Unit­ed States.

Pan­elists:

• Alli­son Ger­ber (mod­er­a­tor), senior asso­ciate, The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Wing­ham Rowan, direc­tor, Beyond Jobs
• Julie Squire, pol­i­cy direc­tor and gen­er­al coun­sel, Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of State Work­force Agencies
• Nick Shultz, exec­u­tive direc­tor, Pacif­ic Gateway
• Danielle Goo­nan, senior man­ag­er, The Wal­mart Foundation

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“We know that hav­ing access to eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty pro­found­ly affects the futures of chil­dren and their fam­i­lies,” said Ger­ber, who leads the Foundation’s invest­ments in edu­ca­tion, employ­ment and train­ing. ​“That’s why we are focused on the shift­ing econ­o­my, and more specif­i­cal­ly, the shift from pre­dictable hours and pre­dictable pay­checks to irreg­u­lar hourly work. As these arrange­ments become more com­mon, we want to ensure low-income par­ents are able to build skills and progress into career path­ways that allow them to pro­vide for their kids.”

Accord­ing to the report, pub­lic work­force sys­tems have an impor­tant role to play in the new gig econ­o­my, but must adapt their approach­es to ensure work­ers have the skills and train­ing nec­es­sary to succeed.

Read the exec­u­tive summary