A report by University of Toronto researchers exploring the rapidly growing gig economy reveals new insights and a deeper understanding of how online platform-mediated work has the potential to transform the future of work and health in Canada and internationally.
"Gig work presents potential opportunities and vulnerabilities for workers, but little is known about their experience in this new labour market," said Principal Investigator Denise Gastaldo, associate professor at U of T's Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and director of the Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
In the context of the rise of digital platform businesses, "gigs" are short-term, temporary contracts that are typically low paid and provide no training, health, or retirement benefits. More and more Canadians are participating in the gig economy, a trend with significant health implications, especially related to precarious work and income insecurity - major predictors of disease.
According to the recently published report, Towards an Understanding of Workers in the Global Gig Economy, measuring the size of the gig economy is challenging because the work is largely invisible and not captured by existing labour market statistics and economic indicators. What is known is the number of people in Toronto who describe their job as "temporary" grew by 40 per cent between 1997 and 2013.
"Studies show the tension between opportunity and vulnerability for workers, but too little is known about how these advantages and disadvantages are experienced differently across demographics and regions," said Uttam Bajwa, lead author of the report and research associate with Dalla Lana's office of global public health education and training.
This shift in the workforce and structure of employment has major implications for the Canadian and global economy. Global and country-level policies have not kept pace with the "gigification" of the labour market, leaving gig workers excluded from existing skills development, health and social protection policies, all of which are designed for the traditional labour market.
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