86
McKinsey Global Institute
4. Making independent work a win for all stakeholders
US survey respondents in traditional jobs who reported experiencing
a recent bout of
unemployment. In Europe, 24 percent of total independent earners and 34 percent of
those who are independent out of necessity reported a bout of unemployment in the
past year vs. 8 percent in the case of traditional workers.
Providing a way for the unemployed to work is especially important in Europe, which
suffers from a chronically high rate of long-term unemployment.
Eurostat reports that
almost 50 percent of the unemployed in EU-27 were not able to find a job for more than
12 months at the end of 2014, while the long-term unemployed amounted to less than
half that share of overall unemployment in the United States, according to BLS data.
Independent work could be a way to put more young people to work in countries where
youth
unemployment is high, enabling them to start on a career ladder.
Overall, enabling the unemployed to keep earning increases the number of hours worked
in the economy, adding to GDP. But policy changes will be needed in some countries
to align incentives, as unemployment benefits are often
sharply reduced or ended
altogether when a recipient starts earning.
Increasing capital productivity.
A small but growing share of independent earning
involves renting out assets. In theory, this should improve capital productivity as
underutilized assets and spare capacity are put to work—and digital platforms improve
this
capability by adding detailed, real-time information that can make a step change in
utilization. For instance, by bringing together individual property owners with travelers
visiting a destination on a specific date,
who want specific amenities, and who have
a clear budget in mind, platforms such as Airbnb, VRBO, FlipKey, and HomeAway
monetize assets
that might otherwise sit empty, unlocking new types of fractional
capacity in the economy. Similarly, the average car is parked more than 95 percent of the
time, but platforms such as Turo, Getaround, Uber, and Lyft can
increase the utilization
of idle vehicles—even beyond what traditional dispatching and cruising the streets
achieved in offline transportation companies. These sharing economy platforms are now
expanding to many other types of assets: photography equipment, private jets, boats,
clothing, and office space.
Increasing labor productivity.
It is also possible that a shift to independent work could
raise
labor productivity, although there are also some offsetting effects. A potential
Exhibit 30
SOURCE: McKinsey Global Institute analysis
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