Independent work: choice, necessity, and the gig economy

In the United States, multiple studies have attempted to size the independent workforce, using different definitions
Estimates of US independent workforce as % of working-age population
1 Includes those who work full time (16.9 million), part time (12.5 million), or occasionally (10.5 million) as consultants, freelancers, on contract, or performing 
temporary or on-call work each week.
2 Includes labor services and some leasing but excludes selling goods.
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22
20
18
16
12
11
10
4
4
1
Intuit
MGI Survey
JPMorgan Chase Institute
Katz & Krueger
Katz & Krueger
<1
BLS
MGI Survey
MBO Partners
1
Burson-Marsteller
2
Kelly Services
Freelancers Union
MGI Survey
Online 
platforms 
only
Primary 
workers only
Primary and 
supplemental
workers
REPEATS in Apx

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McKinsey Global Institute
Independent work: Choice, necessity, and the gig economy
By including supplemental earners, MGI’s survey finds that the independent 
workforce is much larger than official statistics suggest
To provide additional insight into how people participate in independent work, MGI 
conducted its own extensive survey, reaching more than 8,000 respondents in the United 
States and five European countries (France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United 
Kingdom).
30
 
The panel was a representative sample of the working-age population in each country 
controlling for demographics, including age, gender, and geographic region.
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 Given that 
the research was administered online, we found that our sample was, on average, slightly 
more educated than the general population. We also acknowledge that our online survey 
population may not reflect the full extent of workers in the informal economy. Individuals who 
are offline, those who have language barriers, and those who are paid off the books or do 
not have official immigration status are some of the most vulnerable independent workers, 
but much of this activity by its nature takes place beyond the reach of official surveys. 
We believe that our survey provides the most detailed view to date of the independent 
workforce. Its questions were designed to provide a comprehensive look at each 
respondent’s sources of income—including their primary job as well as any additional 
income-generating activities they might engage in on the side. It also asked about their 
satisfaction with various aspects of their work life and what kind of working style they aspire 
to in the future. We took an exhaustive approach to asking about income sources to capture 
the more nuanced story of people who do independent work on a supplemental basis or 
to provide a bridge between two traditional jobs. The survey did not probe into legal job 
classifications, hourly wages (net or gross), or the trade-offs workers are willing to make for 
independence. These questions would need to be examined in future research.
Overall, we estimate that 10 to 15 percent of the working-age population in the United States 
and the EU-15 is engaged in some form of independent work for their primary source of 
income. This is in line with the government statistics described above for self-employed and 
temporary workers, categories that can be used as a rough proxy for primary independent 
earners. However, our estimates of primary independent earners are slightly lower than 
government numbers because we have excluded some self-employed and temporary 
workers who lack the autonomy or control over scheduling that is part of our definition of 
independent work. In fact, we classified about one in three people who reported earning 
income through a temporary contract and one in five who stated they were self-employed 
as traditional workers; one in four other earners were considered independent. (See the 
technical appendix for details on how we classified survey responses.)
On top of primary independent earners, we estimate that another 10 to 15 percent of the 
working-age population generates supplemental income through independent work. 
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  In addition, we surveyed active independent earners on six digital platforms (Airbnb, eBay, Etsy, Thumbtack, 
Uber, and Upwork) to provide specific insights into how digitally enabled independent work differs from 
traditional work. These surveys yielded more than 2,000 responses. We note in the text when we discuss the 
results of this more targeted digital worker survey as opposed to the broader MGI workforce survey.
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  The US survey also controlled for household income.
MGI’s survey asked respondents about all of their 
sources of income over the past year as well as their 
satisfaction with their working lives and what kind of 
working style they would prefer in the future.

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McKinsey Global Institute
1. Sizing the independent workforce 
Here we found substantial undercounting in official statistics, largely because government 
labor surveys ask only whether people hold multiple jobs—a strict definition that excludes 
a wide variety of supplemental work activities. Multiple jobholders account for roughly 1 
to 5 percent of working-age people in the United States and Europe. But there are many 
ways to earn supplemental income without taking on another job. Some 70 percent of 
Etsy sellers and 60 percent of Uber drivers in the United States have some other form of 
primary income, for instance.
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 Our definition of “supplemental earners” includes traditional 
jobholders who do independent work on the side as well as retirees or students who do 
not fully rely on these earnings. This income may be small; four in ten supplemental earners 
derive less than 10 percent of their income from independent work. 
Combining our estimates for both primary and supplemental earners, we find that 
independent work is a much bigger phenomenon than official statistics indicate (Exhibit 6). 
In the United States, we estimate that 54 million to 68 million individuals (or 22 to 27 percent 
of the working-age population) engage in independent work. Approximately 48 percent do 
so for their primary income, while a slight majority are supplemental earners.
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 Extrapolating 
the results from our five European survey countries to the broader EU-15, we estimate that 
60 million to 93 million Europeans are independent earners and that they account for 18 to 
28 percent of the working-age population.
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By far the largest share of the independent workforce provides labor services, with some 
95 percent of respondents in the United States and 91 percent in our European survey 
countries doing so (Exhibit 7). A smaller but still significant share (12 percent in the United 
States and 14 percent in Europe) sold goods to generate income in the past year. Only 
3 percent of independent earners in the United States and 6 percent in Europe leased 
assets in the past year. These categories are not mutually exclusive; our survey found that 
many people who sell goods or lease assets also engage in other types of independent 
earning. This is consistent with a picture of individuals putting together a portfolio of income 
streams to earn a living. 
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  Jonathan Hall and Alan Krueger, 
An analysis of the labor market for Uber’s driver-partners in the United States
, 
Princeton University Industrial Relations Section working paper number 587, January 2015; 
Building an Etsy 
economy: The new face of creative entrepreneurship
, Etsy, July 2015.
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  Note that we look at independent earners as a share of the earning population rather than as a share of the 
official workforce. (The earning population is defined as anyone in our survey who reported working, selling, or 
renting to earn income.) We make this distinction because government labor surveys ask respondents if they 
are unemployed at the time of the survey, while we asked if respondents had been unemployed at any time 
over the past year. See the technical appendix for further detail on survey methodology and definitions.
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  These estimates are presented as ranges. The lower end is based on an analysis of government data and 
external sources; the upper end is the MGI survey result. For the remainder of this report, we utilize the high 
end of the ranges as derived from the MGI survey. We extrapolate the results from the five European countries 
we surveyed to the full set of EU-15 countries by weighting for population.