“Moving is the worst. Yard work is the worst. Building IKEA furniture is the worst.” So began a 2015 report on TaskRabbit, a company founded in 2008 (under the name RunMyErrand), that helps people hire others to do their chores. As of 2019 there were about 140,000 of these freelancers, whom the company calls Taskers, and TaskRabbit operated in 53 U.S. cities, Great Britain, and Canada. 

Why would becoming a Tasker seem appealing to some workers? The great majority of Taskers are part-time workers, who want flexibility in their employment; the companyʼs pitch to potential Taskers contains the slogan “Earn money your way, ” and features testimonials from workers who combined employment with parenting, careers in the arts, and so on. 

Working part time for a variety of clients isnʼt a new phenomenon. On urban street corners across the United States, workers still line up early each morning in the hope of getting day jobs in industries like construction, where the need for workers fluctuates, sometimes unpredictably. For more skilled workers, there are numerous online resources as well as temporary staffing agencies, like Allegis Group, that provide workers on a subcontracting basis, from a few days to months at a time. And some people still find temporary jobs by calling numbers listed in classified ads, or even going door to door........

QUESTIONS

1. How is the matching of job-seekers and employers through services like TaskRabbit likely to affect frictional unemployment? 

2. What is the likely effect of such services on the number of people considered to be in the labor force? 

3. Some analysts suggest that most freelancers have other jobs, and only do gig economy work on the side. How does that statement help explain the lack of clear evidence for a growing gig economy?