“Uber just filed its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company. Although it lost $1bn, investors may still do well because the losses appear to be declining.
Uber drivers, on the other hand, aren’t doing well. According to a recent study, about half of New York’s Uber drivers are supporting families with children, yet 40% depend on Medicaid and another 18% on food stamps.
It’s similar elsewhere in the new American economy. Last week, the New York Times reported that fewer than half of Google workers are full-time employees. Most are temps and contractors receiving a fraction of the wages and benefits of full-time Googlers, with no job security.
Across America, the fastest-growing category of new jobs is gig work – contract, part-time, temp, self-employed and freelance. And a growing number of people work for staffing firms that find them gig jobs.
Estimates vary but it’s safe to say almost a quarter of American workers are now gig workers. Which helps explain why the standard economic measures – unemployment and income – look better than Americans feel.
The jobs problem today isn’t just stagnant wages. It’s also uncertain incomes. A downturn in demand, change in consumer preferences, or a personal injury or sickness, can cause future paychecks to disappear. Yet nearly 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
According to polls, about a quarter of American workers worry they won’t be earning enough in the future. That’s up from 15% a decade ago. …”
Hail Larry Kudlow’s Goldilocks!
According to every show on FOX News except Tucker Carlson Tonight, the Blompf economy is the greatest economy in American history. We’re MAGAing, fam!
Robert Reich endorses Universal Basic Income. He also endorses raising corporate taxes to pay for universal health insurance for gig economy workers. That’s blasphemy against “our free market principles” though on the American Right as it is currently constituted under mainstream conservatism.
In currently looking for a new job in the IT field and can only find contract work. This is absolutely ridiculous. Also, I have coworkers in my department that are not even US citizens. They come over from India. It’s infuriating.
I saw a news story about this issue a month ago. A woman in IT was saying her firm is forcing their staff to train Indians, so they can take their jobs. She said she is telling her children not to go into IT as there is no future in it any more.
If there is no future in high tech. then there is no future.
“In currently looking for a new job in the IT field and can only find contract work.”
This has been going on for more than a couple of decades but getting worse. And it’s not just in IT – it’s happening with the defense industries – I call it “Just in time Engineering” (similar to Walmart’s “just in time inventory”). They bring in hourly contractors for a 6 month job and then let them go. It heavily stresses families because the father has to go to another part of the country to make money to support his family – so while he’s providing for them, he’s not there (kids growing up without a father, wife without her husband, etc.).
I assume when you say IT you mean network and similar IT tasks. I would suggest that you have the aptitude to code (don’t jump on me yet) – there is a lot of free code development environments that you can download and install – and learn from home (many tutorials available such as Tutorialspoint and others). Create a few projects and post them to a Github account so that you have a portfolio (like a resume) and you’ll be surprised that there is work out there.
Regular- It’s not infuriating. IT’S TREASON. you need to see that every H1B is an ILLEGAL, and has NO BUSINESS EVEN LIVING IN OUR LAND, let alone STEALING work from White Americans.
All the Jewish midget Reich did during his gig in the Clinton Administration was export jobs to Mexico and China!
Trump just fucked up. He’s suggested that the NHS was on the table. Third Rail of British politics baby.
The GOP and conservative, inc. both need to go out like the HMS Titanic and the Hindenburg zeppelin.
The sooner the better.
“Uber drivers, on the other hand, aren’t doing well. According to a recent study, about half of New York’s Uber drivers are supporting families with children, yet 40% depend on Medicaid and another 18% on food stamps.”
So along with all the tax breaks, the corporations and their fat cat parasitic leadership still shake down the taxpayer. When are those gallows going to be built and be operational? Place an ad in the paper. The supply of volunteers will be endless. I’m one. By the way, I swing a mean hammer. And, I’ll pass on the hood.
I hate corporations meaning I hate the people that run them. Isn’t it time we focus on the stockholders as well. Why do they get a pass?
I’ve always called Reich the midget commie. In principle, US corporate tax rates need to be low in comparison to other countries but end the rent seeking H1B and other such nonsense.
A lot of the contract boon has to do with the spiraling costs of employing people: payroll taxes, Obamacare, welfare costs, possible lawsuits (especially if you hire a homo or vibrant and they concoct a discrimination case). It’s just a lot less headache for small and medium-sized businesses to go the contract route. Thanks legislators!