Independent work: choice, necessity, and the gig economy

Exhibit A10
Criteria
Data indicators
Rating
Discreteness

Share of activities in the occupation that can 
be automated (from MGI research on 
automation)

Presence of job on existing freelance 
platforms

Non-managerial'>Discrete
if >20% of job activities can be 
automated

Not discrete 
if otherwise
Non-managerial

Share of time spent managing people in 
each occupation (from MGI research on 
automation)

Non-managerial
if <20% of time spent 
managing

Managerial
if otherwise
1
Seasonality/churn

Churn rate in industries where the 
occupation is prevalent (from BLS JOLT 
survey; press searches)

Seasonality in the industry

Seasonal
if the industry exhibits high churn 
or seasonality

Not seasonal 
if otherwise
Talent scarcity

Average hourly wage for occupation (BLS)

Scarce
if mean hourly wage >90th 
percentile for US jobs overall

Not scarce 
if otherwise
Knowledge

Expert interviews

Explicit
if knowledge needed for job is 
easily transferable

Contextual
if job requires knowledge of 
company processes or other context that is 
not easily specified
We used the following data indicators to rate occupations on each of our criteria
SOURCE: McKinsey Global Institute analysis 
1 Or if job title is “supervisor.”

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116
McKinsey Global Institute
Appendix: Technical notes 
A four-step approach was used:
1.  Time use data gathered by income level and country
Our approach was to identify and categorize the time use data into activities that were 
conducive to independent work (see Exhibit A11). These activities typically are ones for 
which real-world options for hiring independent workers already exist (e.g., Care.com 
for babysitting). We assumed that households would convert unpaid household work to 
paid household work in a linear income progression. This assumption is based on prior 
research which has shown empirically that higher-income households are more likely to 
purchase domestic services such as housecleaning.
112
112
  R.S. Oropesa, “Using the service economy to relieve the double burden: Female labor force participation and 
service purchases,” 
Journal of Family Issues
, volume 14, number 3, September 1993. 
Exhibit A11