The share of Americans who may be classified as part of the "gig economy" has shrunk since 2005, according to a government report that also showed such jobs are increasingly concentrated among older workers in an ageing labour force. On Thursday, the labour department said 10.1% of Americans in May 2017 were on alternative work arrangements — which includes independent contractors, on-call workers and people working for third-party contractors — down from the 10.7% in the last report in 2005. That decline resulted mainly from a drop in the share of people identifying as independent contractors, which fell to 6.9% from 7.4% in 2005. Below the surface, the data showed that Americans aged 55 years and older constituted bigger shares of independent contractors in 2017 than in 2005. That suggests that the ageing Baby Boomers are accepting such positions, whether it be to supplement incomes or because they may be easier to take than traditional jobs.
The labour-force participation r...
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