Independent work: choice, necessity, and the gig economy

MGI’s survey finds that 15 percent of independent earners use digital 
platforms today 
Despite the media coverage they have garnered, only a fraction of independent work 
takes place on digital platforms such as Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit, Upwork, Freelancer.com, 
Thumbtack, and the like. Katz and Krueger’s research pegged this number at 0.3 percent 
Exhibit 8
SOURCE:  Freelancers Union; 
Forbes
; 
Financial Times
; company websites; McKinsey Global Institute analysis
Online marketplaces for independent work are small but growing rapidly 
1 Numbers represent most recent available data, between 2013 and 2015.
2 Includes active drivers.
As of August 2016
Platforms
Category
Company
Number of earners
1
Providing labor
Delivery and 
home services
Deliveroo
5,000 drivers
Engineering, 
creative, and 
business services
Upwork
12.5 million users
Guru
2 million users
Freelancer.com
>18 million users
Hourly Nerd
17.5 consultants
SamaSource
6,500 workers
Witmart.com
7 million users
TaskRabbit
25,000 service providers
CrowdFlower
5 million contributors
DogVacay
>25,000 sitters
Transportation
Uber
1 million drivers
2
Lyft
60,000 drivers
Gett
100,000 cars
Health care
Freelance Physician
10,000 physicians
Education
Skillshare
>5,000 classes with 1.6 million students
Selling goods
Etsy
1.7 million sellers globally
eBay
25 million sellers globally
DaWanda
360,000 producers listed
Taobao
–
La Ruche Qui Dit Oui!
–
Leasing assets
Getaround
200,000 members (including drivers)
Airbnb
2,500,000 listings worldwide
BlaBlaCar
20 million members (including passengers)
Kitsplit
Used by thousands of filmmakers and studios
Boatbound
~12,500 boats listed
Rentez-Vous
–

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37
McKinsey Global Institute
Independent work: Choice, necessity, and the gig economy
of working-age adults in the United States in any given week.
37
 Another study employed our 
broader definition of independent work (that is, it included supplemental earners and those 
who sell goods or rent assets) and put the share at roughly 4 percent of the US working-age 
population.
38
 
Our own survey finds that about 4 percent of the working-age population has used digital 
platforms to earn independent income. However, within the population of independent 
earners, we find that 16 percent of independent workers in the United States (11 million 
people) and 14 percent in Europe (13 million people) have used a digital platform to 
find work. 
Digital platform utilization is most common among independent earners who sell goods: 
60 to 70 percent of the sellers in our survey have used an e-commerce marketplaces such 
as eBay or Etsy. Between 25 and 40 percent of those in our survey who rent assets have 
used a digital platform such as HomeAway, Airbnb, or VRBO. But only 6 percent of all 
independent workers who offer labor services have used a digital platform (8 percent in the 
United States and 4 percent in Europe; Exhibit 9).
37
  This number equates to 0.5 percent of US workers, which is a small subset of the 15.8 percent of US workers 
engaged in all forms of alternative work arrangements. Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger, 
The rise and nature 
of alternative work arrangements in the United States, 1995–2015
, March 2016. 
38
 
Paychecks, paydays, and the online platform economy: Big data on income volatility
, JPMorgan Chase 
Institute, February 2016.