A recruiter meets with employment seekers during a job fair in Philadelphia. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)
The Los Angeles Times quotes Nik Theodore, GCI fellow and professor of urban planning and policy, on the growing prevalence of a wide variety of temporary, freelance, and odd jobs. Theodore questions whether this is specific to the current economy or a fundamental change in the job market.
It’s hard to track the growth of the gray economy because so many employers hide workers for tax purposes. Experts generally agree, however, that the ranks of the underemployed swelled during the recession — more than in past downturns — and have remained substantial in an unsteady recovery.
“This segment of the labor market is a barometer for the economy as a whole,” said Nik Theodore, an urban planning professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “As employment insecurity spreads across the economy, more and more workers are being forced to turn to the street, to odd jobs, to becoming on-call workers. The question is whether this is a cyclical change, a blip or a signal of something much more fundamental.”
