The End of Unemployment?

Employed or unemployed. Until recently, there was little in-between. But the Collaborative Economy is changing that. Along with dramatically changing the way we work, it’s changing the way we experience periods of unemployment as well — softening the blow and providing a cushion against catastrophe.

Prior to the emergence of the Gig Economy, losing your job meant going from 100% of your regular income to 0% overnight, but the Collaborative Economy is much more elastic. Small businesses can scale up and down rapidly without committing to permanent employees, while Gig Entrepreneurs can keep their income sources diversified. On a micro-level, workers stay more responsive. On a macro-level, local economies become more robust against large-scale events, such as mass layoffs.

We could be looking at a future in which “a fraction of the work force would perform a portfolio of gigs to generate an income — you could be an Uber driver, an Instacart shopper, an Airbnb host and a Fiverr seller.”

As a Gig Entrepreneur, your income may fluctuate, but along with that volatility, comes a built-in safeguard. Maintaining a portfolio of income sources means these variations don’t hit as hard. When your income is from a single predictable source, there’s zero volatility — until that prediction goes wrong, and then it’s a crisis. As any entrepreneur will tell you, having your company rely on a single client is a recipe for disaster yet that’s what traditional employees do everyday. 

In 2000, France introduced a 35-hour week to “share” jobs. The logic was that if existing workers worked less, the same amount of labor could be partitioned among more workers. The Gig Economy operates similarly (albeit, more efficiently). By redistributing some of the work, more workers stay working. 

This goes beyond helping the unemployed. It helps the overworked too. 

We know that, given the choice, people consistently prioritize work-life balance and flexibility over higher paychecks. Workers in countries that have shorter work weeks and longer vacations are happier and more productive than their stressed-out counterparts. 

Can the Gig Economy fluidly match up the overworked with the underworked? Relieve the overburdened while empowering the underutilized? And make everyone a little happier in the process? 

Actually, we’re already doing it.

Do you think the growth of the Gig Economy will mean the end of unemployment? Let me know on Twitter