From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Gig Economy Workforce Description: The Bureau of Labor Statistics took a survey of non-traditional workers in 2017 - more than a decade after their previous survey. We look at how they've responded to changes in the gig economy. Related GAO Work: GAO-19-273R: Contingent Workforce: BLS is Reassessing Measurement of Nontraditional Workers Released: February 2019 [ Background Music ] [ Cindy Brown Barnes: ] There are millions of workers that are no longer in traditional, full-time, year-round jobs. [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. The Bureau of Labor Statistics takes periodic looks at the state of the contingent workforce, sometimes called the nontraditional workforce, or the gig economy. It's a labor group that includes independent contractors, temp agency workers, and more recently, people relying on income from mobile app based services, like ride-sharing. These categories account for millions of Americans. I'm with Cindy Brown Barnes, an Education Workforce and Income Security director at GAO and she led a report reviewing how BLS surveys this nontraditional workforce. Cindy, first off, are there any trends revealed in the BLS surveys? [ Cindy Brown Barnes: ] As you mentioned, BLS does periodically collect and measure data on the contingent workforce or the temporary workforce. There's no federal definition of this and other researchers have referred to this as gig workers or gig employment. We have two key data points, 2005 BLS issues, the contingent workers supplement. And in the 2005 supplement, the data showed there was 4.1 percent and is gig employment or contingent worker population. But in this most recent survey, the May 2017, it shows a decline of 3.8 percent in the same population of workers -- temporary workers. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, as we've seen the gig economy evolve, has BLS modified their surveys in an attempt to keep up with the changes? [ Cindy Brown Barnes: ] BLS did modify its survey and BLS refers to these mobile applications or electronic platforms as electronic-mediated employment. And what they did was they added four additional questions to try to capture this population of people who get employment through websites and mobile apps. But what we found is that most companies that rely on gig workers that use these online apps, they were just established in 2008, so that was after the 2005 survey. So, in order to capture this evolving labor group, they introduced the four questions, but there's been some concern about what are they measuring or how accurately they -- they're measuring this mobile app population. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, did you get a sense then of how accurately these changes represent what's really happening with this workforce? [ Cindy Brown Barnes: ] Well, there's been a lot of discussion about that. To be counted as a contingent worker, you must consider your main job is temporary. So, if a person -- I'll give you an example -- drives for Uber and it's the secondary job or it's a supplemental income, they would not be counted in this population, or similarly, if a person drives for Uber as their only job but they don't consider it to be temporary, then they will also not be counted in this population. So, overall, while the survey results may actually measure contingent workers, it may not completely capture this broader, evolving employment, or -- of gig workers that we're talking about. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] It sounds like BLS has added some questions to their most recent survey of nontraditional workers and there is some concern about the accuracy of the data they've been collecting. So, Cindy, what can BLS do to address these issues? [ Cindy Brown Barnes: ] What they are doing and what they can continue to do is the polling of stakeholders and other experts. Also, they're in the contract, so look at the questions, and to look how to better measure this population. They're planning for that, they're doing some panel of experts, they call them public workshops, but that's going to take some time. They don't expect to be done with the contract and some of these results until 2020. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, lastly, what do you believe is the bottom line of the report? [ Cindy Brown Barnes: ] The bottom line of the report is that there are millions of workers that are no longer in traditional, full-time, year-round jobs, and because of this, it's really important for BLS to be able to have an accurate measure that fully captures this workforce so that policymakers and decision makers can have the data that they need to make informed decisions. [ Matt Oldham: ] Cindy Brown Barnes is an Education Workforce and Income Security director at GAO and we were talking about her report on the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys of the nontraditional workforce. Thank you for your time, Cindy. [ Cindy Brown Barnes: ] Thank you. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us as gao.gov.