Dr. Charles A. West
We have gone from the Great Recession between 2007-2009 to the Great Resignation in 2021. In both cases, millions of jobs and lives have been impacted. Mention the Great Recession and many people glare at you trying to figure out what you are talking about. Some are too young to know and others would rather forget. Say the Great Resignation and many of the same people automatically get it. Because it is happening now. Over 4 million people resigned from their jobs in September. But the Great Recession and Great Resignation are inextricably linked according to the Freelance Gig Gurus. Here’s how.
The Great Recession was one of the major factors that spawned the gig economy, the new labor marketplace where over 50 million people seek and find temporary work in the U.S.. The other three factors were technology, changing perception of work and decreased job creation. Over 8 million jobs were lost during the economic meltdown called the Great Recession. People had to make ends meet when they lost their jobs and cobbled together different gigs to survive. They also leveraged underutilized assets like cars, housing, boats, airplanes to generate income. Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, Etsy, Touro, Fiverr, and Upwork, offered work.
When the economy began to recover, some people working at gigs realized they liked gig work better than their previous employment. Gigs provided individuals with many benefits that they had always longed for: Independence, Flexibility, Control, Better Work-Life Balance (Redefining Success) Work Remotely, Get paid what you are worth, Respect, Growth and Self-Improvement. It’s estimated that The gig economy grew from around 10 million people after the Great Recession to over 50 million today and will represent half of the jobs in the economy by 2026. Interesting enough, studies of people who were part of the Great Resignation found them motivated by some of the same factors that made gig work attractive after the Great Recession. And the pandemic contributed further to the Great Resignation.
Did we learn anything from the Great Recession which occurred between 2007-2009?