How The Gig Economy Gives Workers More Freedom

There are all sorts of ways that the economy for workers has changed over the past decade or two. For example, 50 years ago people went to work for one company and might have stayed there their whole career, moving up through the ranks but not even thinking about leaving to go to another company. But recently, lots of things have changed for workers. For one, there’s movement: People aren’t staying in the same place and they’re not staying at one company. For another, more and more people are taking their workday lives into their own hands and in their own control, either because they’re forced to or because they want to. That, in turn, is helping create what many are calling the gig economy.

The gig economy is also known as the freelance economy—people working for themselves and by themselves, either because they can’t find employment or because they want to do so. What does that look like? This graphic explains it.