[News Terms] Ultra-Short-Term Workers 'Gig Workers'

Short-term Contracts, One-time Labor... Many MZ Generation Workers Gather

The number of so-called 'gig workers' providing ultra-short-term labor is increasing. Photo by Pixabay

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] The number of workers providing ultra-short-term labor, such as signing short-term contracts or taking on one-time jobs according to employers' needs, is increasing.

On the 3rd of last month, Alba Solidarity analyzed the September employment trend statistics from Statistics Korea and found that the number of ultra-short-time workers was 1.796 million. Compared to September 2013, ten years ago (812,000), this represents an increase of nearly one million.

Ultra-short-term temporary workers are also called "gig workers." The term originated in the early 1920s in American jazz venues when a performer could not play or had scheduling issues, and an impromptu performer was recruited from the audience to take over the performance. Such performers were called "gigs," and the term later came to mean short-term contract musicians. Over time, the meaning broadened to encompass forms of temporary contracts with workers in industrial settings based on need.

In the past, this type of part-time labor was typically chosen by those who found regular employment difficult. However, recently, gig workers are mainly from the MZ generation (born between the 1980s and early 2000s), and many are known to have chosen this voluntarily. It is analyzed that many from the MZ generation, who dislike rigid organizational cultures, are flocking to this type of work. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor's first survey on platform labor status conducted in November last year, 2.197 million people had found work through platforms in the past three months, with the MZ generation accounting for 55.2% of this group.

Moreover, as the digital platform industry develops, related fields are also expanding. While the gig worker industry used to be limited to delivery workers or rideshare drivers, it has recently expanded into various professional areas such as web and graphic designers, IT developers, and translators. As a result, various platforms, services, and financial products exclusively for gig workers are being launched one after another, leading to the growth of the "gig economy." The Harvard Business Review (HBR) projected that the global gig economy market size would grow to $455 billion (approximately 545 trillion KRW) by 2023.

However, ultra-short-time workers are not guaranteed annual leave, weekly holiday pay, or severance pay as stipulated by the Labor Standards Act, leading to calls for related laws to be established to protect them.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.