The gig economy is here, and it’s not a pretty picture

The discussion about the changing nature of work -- specifically with regard to the shift away from full-time employment to a freelancer-dominated, gig economy -- has been growing.

A number of items crossed my radar screen, including a number of financing announcements that demonstrate that employment has become increasingly precarious for most people.

A new report has been released by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKES), and it makes for scary reading. The report collates a great deal of data about the state of work in the UK and other countries, and casts a futures approach toward trends analysis. The skinny is that things are bad in the UK, with a marketplace and workforce that is the least educated in the EU after Spain, and with low growth projected. But the scenarios they concoct for the future all seem to converge into a dystopic future, where several trends prevail:

• The only group that has any hope of stable employment are the well-trained and well-educated, but even they have modest hopes for increased pay.
• The middle-skilled tier of workers are being pushed out by a number of trends: use of freelancers, migration of work to other countries (notably Asia), and automation.
• Those in the bottom-skilled tier of workers are increasingly likely to be working as freelancers: part-time, ‘zero hours’ contract positions, which lack the benefits and stability of full-time employment.