Candidates: How will you turn ‘gig’ jobs into good jobs?

Very good article that highlights many points about our economy we are all trying to vocalize. The same opportunity that exist 15 years ago doesn't exist today. Kids graduating with degrees and no way to use them. Seems like what's left pays nothing or is temporary... Then there's the on demand economy.

thehill.com...

The low pay and troubling work conditions associated with “on demand” apps like Uber have caught the attention of the media, the courts, and Capitol Hill. But on the campaign trail, there’s near radio silence on the issue

So they are specifically talking about the rise of Uber and other on demand job applications like the new one they have for truck drivers that eliminates the brocker. Great to keep cost down for companies cuts out the middleman and the truckers makes a little bit more than before.

Still cuts a lot of people out of the process.

Second, workers aren’t by and large turning to the on-demand economy because they love the flexibility. They’re doing so out of necessity—the need to earn more money because their day jobs don’t pay the rent, as a February 2016 report from the J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Institute demonstrates

I actually three uber drivers and they all have great jobs and it's still not enough they have to drive uber on the side still.

Anyway... Here's a look into the new world.

a reply to: onequestion

My cynicism is slowly starting to turn a bit more positive. The same reasons I am critical of my generation and that of the one before may save us.

Short time memory, people are blank slates coming into the world and we all had it easy. Somethings got to give though, I think people will start to seriously approach these problems that are adding to the powder keg.

a reply to: onequestion

100 S&Fs for this thread because for people living in Western (type countries) its the question of this era that needs answering with now. You hit a very important matter right on the nail. Morgan Chase have probably recognised that people overworking will ultimately suffer health decline and all that entails for their families and the economy.

It really is the most important issue of the day because we need to spotlight the process and those responsible for the decline in our work opportunities and we are looking at 1 reason for this Greed by a few individuals and all those they have bought off.

We should be screaming at our politicians, industrialists and bankers/brokers because these groups of people are the biggest threat to our survival as they are destroying the opportunities for our young - whom we will all ultimately rely on.

We have been forced to accept corruption as though its something almost clever because we see no accountability from those in the powerful groups of people mentioned above. Printing money just to keep a failed financial system operating is just postponing the inevitable oncoming domino effect.

To loose hope which is what a lot of our clever young are slowly doing, or being exploited like workhorses tied into a system in place before they were born is all most can look forward to - unless they are of the elite of course.

Anyone with a leg of sense knows you can't export the majority of your manufacturing jobs abroad and leave that wealth of work places empty for your own workers. We can't blame this job situation on technology either because had the profits been shared around, instead of going into only a very few pockets, people would be occupied because they had the money to spend, invest etc and more importantly invent.

There is a fine line between contract/agency workers called in when you want them because often this work is long term so very different from uber working etc. A lot of businesses have used agency staff since the 1960's and probably before then, but these were alongside their permanent staff which still gave workers a sense of security and opportunity to swop over if possible. The days of a job for life are less and less, even in the professions or the docks etc but if our countries are not going to decline further we need to correct the work place problems and replace these with jobs that have security, incremental pay as well as acceptable safety standards not too much red tape. A lot has to change and its our leaders that need to be concentrating on this now and putting the pressure on the industrialists and especially the top bankers who are going to have to release their wealth if ultimately they want a future for their own future generations. We have to have change and its now we need it.

Many people's eyes are off the ball on this one because especially in Europe we have the distraction of the refugee and terrorism problems but these are not where we really need our best brains and future opportunities focused. Common sense and brawn will deal with the refugees but sadly we don't need extra unemployed flooding in because we have to stabilise our own working/unemployed people first before we create more opportunities for others. we can't operate on all sides with enough resources we have to concentrate where the change will start first for better opportunities for our young.

a reply to: Shiloh7

Yup, damn you got that spot on my friend.

Phew. Glad other people are starting to get it. The job market blows.

a reply to: onequestion

The job market is becoming bifurcated in the extremes. You have a smaller number of high skilled jobs that are paying a lot and then a lot of lower skilled jobs with minimal pay.

All of this is the result of globalism. The average american worker cannot compete against a peasant making $2/day. It simply is not possible. The only benefit is that many third world toilet countries are seeing their standards of living increase while the American worker is seeing theirs lowered.

After 15+ years of layoff's, downsizing, retraining, and so on I finally decided to do what I wanted to do, and give the machine the finger.

Along the way I started back to school for the third time, except I chose to do what I wanted to without regard to chasing what I thought might be a "hot job" in the future.

I started doing LOTS of freelance work as well. Frankly, as a single dad, responsible for raising my kids while my ex parties like a 25 year old and doesn't pay her child support, I needed more flexibility anyway. I write for "geek" websites, covering Dungeons and Dragons, video games and rock n roll music and vinyl. I drive for both Uber and Lyft. I write grant proposals, and work temp here or there in marketing and data analysis.

I drive a lot less for Uber and Lyft than I did at first. After they both cut driver pay, I made the decision only to drive when i had the free time and when it was most convenient and profitable for me. I laugh at their text messages sometimes: "We NEED you to log in and transport our customers, demand is spiking!"

The thing that on-demand employees need to grapple with is this: none of these companies provide anything of value without you. You can decide to do something else if they aren't making it worth your time. They don't have a business if they don't have drivers willing to meet passengers and ferry them around. You shouldn't do it for less than the price of a cup of coffee.

I don't know that any politician CAN address the problem with gig employment at this point in time. People have been conditioned to believe that only THEIR labor is worth something valuable. Everyone else is "worth less."

What I discovered is that there are lots of ways to stick it to the pricks who devalue you on a regular basis. An entire political movement has formed -- on both sides of the silly right / left paradigm -- to do just that to the political and pundit class.

Frankly, it's been a long time coming. If you want to pay someone to guard your loot because you don't have the stones to do it yourself, good luck! A bunch of us have already figured out that -- since we do all the cooking, cleaning, entertaining, programming and so on -- we can take back whatever we feel is righteous, without checking with you first. To the architects of the gig economy I say this: good luck doing any of it without us!

a reply to: Edumakated

peasant making $2/day

third world toilet countrie

Not very edumakated when you sink to slurs like this. Who do you think invests in these 3rd world countries with cheap labour, American companies like Apple and Walmart. Your own US companies sold out the American people all in the name of bigger profits

originally posted by: Edumakated
The job market is becoming bifurcated in the extremes. You have a smaller number of high skilled jobs that are paying a lot and then a lot of lower skilled jobs with minimal pay.

And a high number of actual skilled positions that are also seeing pay decline.