HOW important is America’s ondemand economy? Some worry that the likes of Uber, a car-hailing app, and Etsy, which helps workers to sell arts-and-crafts, are destroying traditional employment and with it pensions and health-care benefits. Others hail the flexible hours, low prices and convenience such apps facilitate. Until now not many data have informed this debate. Official statistics track things like part-time working, self-employment and working from home, but the app economy is too small to move those needles. In fact, most indicators suggest it is boring traditional work, rather than app-enabled odd-jobbing, that is on the rise.
A new report plugs the gap. Researchers from the JPMorgan Chase Institute, a think-tank attached to the bank, studied the incomes of 1m of their customers with active current accounts of three years. They found that, in September 2015, 1% of them earned income through an (identifiable) on-demand platform. Of these, just over half used “capital” platforms, such as Airbnb, to lease stuff they own. The rest—about 0.4%—used labour platforms like Uber. Though small, the supply of ondemand labour and capital has grown...Continue reading
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