The History of Gig Economy

The history of Gig Economy

"The future is for those who wants to grow with own skills." 

According to the historians, the gig economy is not a new phenomenon but was prevalent before the 19^th century industrial revolution. It was very normal then to be engaged in numerous occupations to acquire a standard income. A person involving only in a single career for a lifetime is a recent sensation. But with the advent of the internet and technology such a concept of one career for a person is undergoing tremendous changes.

Gig economy was here from ages but the thing is there was no specific term or concept that has been introduced until recently to indicate such gigs. Some of the earliest gig works include, courier services, truck and taxi drivers, nannies and caretakers, personal grocery shoppers etc. 

The beginning of the 20^th century has witnessed a great recession that resulted in severe unemployment that forced people to engage in several works to make a living. The great depression and famine occurred at that time triggered the lives of farmers that forced them to sell their farm lands and to move out as migrants, they had to work in several farm lands in a gig manner to make the ends meet. This is the earliest recorded gig work. Later during the time of world war II companies who had to finish an abundance of tasks and were lacking enough workforce, hired workers on a short term contract basis. 

In 1995 , Craigslist, an online site to find jobs, was launched in the USA and Elance(now renamed as Upwork) introduced in 1999 that helped lots of freelancers to find remote works and connect with the client online. In the later years the real job providing platforms and crowdsourcing marketplaces like Airbnb, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk(Mturk), Uber, and Lyft were introduced that marked a new era in the digital marketplace. 

By the last decade of the 20^th century, the digital era has begun to take off, which has increased the demand for gig workers in the USA. It has marked the beginning of a new era of the gig economy. The Internet and technology has significantly taken over the world, influencing the lives and perspectives of individuals. Access to smartphones and computers with internet connections predominantly changed the way people think about work, and consequently broke the conventional idea about employment.