The number of people doing platform gig work like deliveries on apps in the US grew by over 150% during the pandemic.
The researchers used tax data from 90 gig economy platforms and apps for their analysis.
"COVID was a watershed moment for a particular type of platform gig work, which is delivery work," Koustas said.
Gig workers became younger and more female; 44% of transportation and delivery platform workers were female by 2021, per the working paper.
While platform gig work climbed during the pandemic, a research brief about the working paper results states that other contract and freelance work fell during COVID.
Persons:
Dmitri Koustas, COVID, Koustas
Organizations:
Service, The University of Chicago Harris School of Public, McKinsey, Workers, Economic Policy Institute
Locations:
Wall, Silicon, United States