Independent work: choice, necessity, and the gig economy

INDEPENDENT WORK:
  
CHOICE, NECESSITY,  
AND THE GIG ECONOMY

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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 

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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 [e-mail]. 
 
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 
 

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