PREFACE
Anyone who has ever felt trapped in a cubicle, annoyed by a micromanaging
boss, or fed up with office politics has probably dreamed of leaving it all behind
and going it alone. The intensifying demands of corporate life are making
this option more appealing for millions of workers around the world. Today,
potentially transformative new digital platforms such as Airbnb, Uber, and
Upwork are creating larger, more transparent, and more efficient marketplaces
to connect freelancers with buyers of their services.
Independent work has seldom been the focus of policy, in part because the
many permutations of such arrangements make it difficult
to measure and pin
down. MGI set out to illuminate this part of the economy by surveying more
than 8,000 respondents across six countries. The results provide the most
detailed view available to date on who participates in independent work, why
they do it, and whether they are satisfied with their careers. With actions taken
by all stakeholders to ease the transition to independent work, it could be a
win-win for workers, companies, and the economy.
This research was led by James Manyika, a director of the McKinsey Global
Institute
based in San Francisco; Susan Lund, an MGI partner based in
Washington, DC; Jacques Bughin, an MGI director based in Brussels;
Jan Mischke, an MGI senior fellow based in Zurich; and Kelsey Robinson, a
McKinsey associate partner based in San Francisco. The project team, led by
Deepa Mahajan, included Sanchi Gupte, Valentin Liebhart,
Crosbie Marine,
Jai Sajnani, Michael Turek, and Antonia Woodford. Lisa Renaud served
as senior editor. Sincere thanks go to our colleagues in operations,
production, and external relations, including Tim Beacom, Marisa Carder,
Matt Cooke, Deadra Henderson, Richard Johnson, Jason Leder, Julie Philpot,
Rebeca Robboy,
Margo Shimasaki, and Patrick White. We are also
grateful to Alan Fitzgerald, Vivien Singer, and Jaroslaw Bronowicki for their
research assistance.
This project benefited immensely from McKinsey colleagues sharing
their expertise and insights. We are grateful to Rick Cavolo, Michael Chui,
Chauncey Holder, Kunal Modi, and Ravi Chandra Chilakamarri Venkata.
Our academic advisers challenged our thinking and provided valuable
feedback and guidance throughout the research. We thank Michael Spence,
Nobel laureate and William R. Berkley Professor in Economics and Business
at the
NYU Stern School of Business; Laura Tyson, professor of business
administration and economics at the Haas School of Business, University
of California, Berkeley; and Andrew Stern, Ronald O. Perelman Senior
Fellow of the Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy at
Columbia University.
We are grateful to the many other experts and academics who generously
shared their insights and reactions with us. These include Joshua Angrist
and
Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT; Jaap Buis of Randstad; Carl Camden, president
and CEO of Kelly Services; Sara Horowitz, founder and executive director of
the Freelancers Union; Lawrence Katz of Harvard University; Alan Krueger
of Princeton University; and Augustin Landier
of the Toulouse School
of Economics.
This independent MGI initiative is based on our own research, the experience
of our McKinsey colleagues more broadly, and the McKinsey High Tech
Practice's research collaboration with Uber, which included data and insights
provided by Betsy Masiello, Jonathan Hall, Bo Iverson, Emily Oehlsen,
and Rachel Whetstone.
We also are grateful to Etsy, eBay, Upwork, and
Thumbtack for allowing us to survey their workers and to Airbnb for generously
sharing its own survey results with us.
We also benefited from publicly available government statistics in various
countries and from the prior research of Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger; the
JPMorgan Chase Institute; the Freelancers Union and Upwork; Kelly Services;
MBO Partners; David Blanchflower and Randstad; Augustin Landier; and the
US Department of Commerce.
This report contributes to MGI’s mission to help
business and policy leaders
understand the forces transforming the global economy and prepare for
the next wave of growth. As with all MGI research, this work is independent,
reflects our own views and has not been commissioned by any business,
government, or other institution. We welcome your comments on the research
at MGI@mckinsey.com.
Jacques Bughin
Director, McKinsey Global Institute
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
Brussels
James Manyika
Director, McKinsey Global Institute
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
San Francisco
Jonathan Woetzel
Director, McKinsey Global Institute
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
Shanghai
