Gig Economy to the Rescue For Job Seekers In Current Public Health Crisis

Financialnewsmedia.com News Commentary

PALM BEACH, Florida, March 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The GIG Economy is a labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs. Uber and Lyft, have been connecting riders with drivers for some time now and now other apps are focusing on opening up more jobs for under, unemployed or laid-off workers in the restaurant industry during this public health crisis. The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled, The Gig Economy to the Rescue: The flexibility of app services is helping millions in the panic, recently said: "Americans have been urged to "social distance" and… to self-quarantine. A decade ago this would have been unpleasant but also impractical for most people. Fortunately, there's now an app, or many, many apps, for that… Uber and Lyft launched the so-called gig economy a decade ago with apps that connect riders with drivers. These (new) apps now let customers order rides, groceries and food delivery through their smartphones."  Active companies in the markets this week include ShiftPixy, Inc. (NASDAQ: PIXY), Grubhub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB), Slack Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: WORK), Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER), Lyft, Inc. (NASDAQ: LYFT).

As a result of the public health crisis, a restaurant's only means of generating revenue are to ramp up "to-go" orders, or to create a delivery program using their employees or third party services. The demand for delivery services has started to rise and with it, opportunities for gig work. A recent insider article addressed this growing demand: "With restaurant workers finding themselves with fewer hours and lost wages, DoorDash stated yesterday that it will be creating a "priority access program" to help workers at their restaurant partners sign up as delivery workers, "enabling them to meet their financial needs until their jobs return to normal."  "This crisis is really a breakout moment for gig companies and for delivery companies in particular," says Julia Pollak, an economist at ZipRecruiter. "That shift to e-commerce, which was already happening very rapidly, is just going to accelerate."