Gig Economy

Dr. Priya Kalyanasundaram, Hod, Dept. of MBA, Sankara College of Science and Commerce

      Gig economy is a temporary job positions wherein organisations hire independent workers for short term commitment. The term gig is a word for a job that last for specified period of time. “Gig Job is a temporary work where the employee often works on a specified project as a contractor or freelancer. The benefit of a gig job is that we can work on multiple projects at a time with flexi working hours. Nowadays the companies tend hiring independent contractors and freelancers instead of full time employees.

It is a challenge for traditional economy of full time employment where employees rarely changes his job position and sticks to the same job throughout his employment. In this digital era the workforce has become more mobile and it can be done from anywhere. This is more useful for freelancers as they can select their job throughout the world and for employer’s it can choose the right candidate for the project and more benefit is that the resources can be saved like office space,  training and even they can hire experts on contract basis for a specified period. The model is applicable only for independent employees who choose jobs with their own interest rather than people joining with some force to attain unemployment where they pick up any temporary jobs .Millenials are keener toward gig work for work life balance and the baby boomers and other generations as they are on the age of retirement are drawn to gig work for extra income.

Gig work is also a challenge like tremulous workloads, pay schedules, lack of benefits with lot of self discipline, as the market has become more competitive gig worker has to constantly upgrade their skills as per the industry trends.