Understanding the Changing Nature of Work

Recent advances in technology have changed how workers and employers interact in the 21st century labor market. Companies such as Uber, TaskRabbit, Airbnb, and others are cited as examples of new non-traditional modes of employment and income generation. Although the press has been full of stories premised on the idea that the share of US jobs without a formal employer-employee relationship is large and growing, available survey data seem at odds with this perception.

Individuals engaged in these non-traditional forms of work should be classified as self-employed, yet the percentage of the workforce that is self-employed as reported in household surveys (such as the Current Population Survey) has instead been drifting downwards since at least the mid-1990s. In contrast, administrative data derived from tax filings, such as the nonemployer statistics published by the Census Bureau, provide stronger support for the popular perception that self-employment is a growing phenomenon over the last several decades.