The gig economy is taking metropolitan areas by storm, and D.C. has been named one of the top cities for finding and keeping those positions.
FitSmallBusiness.com pegged D.C. as the fifth best city for gig economy jobs on a list of 15. San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston were ranked one through four.
It’s no surprise that the District made the list. Many of the cities, including D.C., Atlanta and Chicago, were named as top choices for Amazon’s second headquarters. The tech giant dove into the gig economy scene in February, announcing it would be delivering Whole Foods groceries to Prime users for free.
“My assumption is that [Amazon’s second headquarters] will strengthen the economy, the gig economy included,” said Evan Tarver, special projects editor for FitSmallBusiness.com. “The only downside of that, with the influx of people coming with Amazon, there will also be an influx of people looking to take part in the gig economy.”
According to the report, D.C’s gig economy growth rate was 35.9 percent, lower than many of the other cities on the list, but the area's gig jobs in 2017 had a per-capita revenue of $11,240, which is the second-highest of the 15. If Amazon chooses one of the DMV's three finalist sites for HQ2, we could see those numbers skyrocket.
FitSmallBusiness used the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment, the per-capita gig revenue and the cities’ gig economy growth to rank the cities.
“When we’re looking at the growth rates of the gig economy, the most sound data is around Lyft and Uber,” Tarver said.
He said about 30 other companies including Instacart, Postmates, DoorDash, Favor and UberEats also factored into the report.
The report estimates 11 percent of working adults in the U.S. are full-time independent contractors in the gig economy.
“The gig economy provides a soft landing. They’re bridge jobs — they close the gap between bouts of normal employment,” Tarver said. “A lot of people will use it as a bridge job, but will begin to enjoy it and stay a lot longer than they planned.”
On the consumer side, gig economy jobs are saving people time. Chores, shopping and traveling no longer have to be a hassle and consumers are buying their time back.
“We’re finding out the value of our time,” Tarver said. “Now that we have these tools that give us time, we’re realizing how valuable it really is.”
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Minneapolis are also American Inno cities that made the list.
