Digging into the disappointing numbers of gig work

MINNEAPOLIS — There's a lot of interest in the gig economy, and the surge of people who are doing temporary or freelance work. While more Minnesotans turn to gig work by choice or necessity, their average earnings have decreased.

That paradox has been exacerbated given the rising costs of living.

Since getting laid off from his IT job four months ago, John Quentin has been turning his passion into profit as a wedding photographer.

"Wedding photography has been the main focus, so I've been doing that full-time and it's been working so far. But as the weather gets colder, I need to get something that works around the year," he said.

While many of his peers have turned to app-based gig work, he's avoided it.

"I feel like it's too short-term focused. You want something that's sustainable. You want to set up retirement, have benefits, stuff like that. Uber and Lyft isn't going to do that for anyone," he said.

In 2020, reported gig work earnings in the Twin Cities Metro were a little more than $17,800 a year. In 2022, they were about $10,500, or a 41% drop.

Agents Only COO Tyler Ashby says it's because of the added competition and the unlimited number of gig workers on apps like Uber or Grubhub. Agents Only's research found the Twin Cities to be the fourth most competitive gig worker market in the country.

"It's unsustainable. It's put those people who heavily relied on the apps in a lot of pain," Ashby said. "They're not going to look at Minneapolis and say hey we're oversaturated. They're just going to say, 'Hey, we're getting our passengers picked up faster.'"

As employers cut labor costs and have the flexibility to staff up and down, demand for skilled contract workers has increased.

"If someone really wants to make it in gig, they either need to have a good stable full-time job that's providing their benefits and gig is really just auxiliary — adding work-life balance adding revenue opportunity — or they need to develop more valuable gig skills," Ashby said.

Marcomm Founder and CEO Joe Foley has worked in the recruiting of skilled labor for 30 years. He says companies no longer look down on potential employees who've been doing contract or freelance work, and employees are more open to it than they've ever been.

"As somebody who does it on a day-to-day basis, I'm not finding any shortage of people that are out there and people that are doing well and like their flexibility," Foley said. "I'm finding that people are lowering their risk tolerance quite a bit, because it's making them happy and they're doing whatever they like to do."

Meanwhile, Quentin is just hoping to earn enough to continue to work for himself.

"If that doesn't work out in the next few months then I'll go back to IT," he said.