LETTER:Gig economy is widely defined as 'platform economy', 'on-demand economy' and 'sharing economy' that refers to the demand and supply of short-term or task-based working activities. In the past years, there is a growing number of people joining gig economy to look for extra income or as their main source of income.
It is also driven by the flexibility in terms of working hours and work location, the freedom to choose the type of work and the pay can be lucrative as well. Now that remote working has emerged as the new norm and a more preferred working style particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, the share of gig workers is likely to be more than 26 per cent.
In other countries, gig economy trends are also on the rise resulting from the shift of workforce. Based on the Global Gig-Economy Index, the United States ranked 1st out of 10 fastest-growing freelance markets with revenue growth of 78 per cent, followed by the United Kingdom (59 per cent) in the 2nd place. In Asia, the Philippines is placed 6th with revenue growth of 35 per cent and India, with 29 per cent.
This shows that globally, people have gradually made gig economy a viable option to earn a living and statistics have shown that on the global scale, gig economy tends to attract more young adults – 25 to 34 years old (46.2 per cent) and 35-44 (32.5 per cent).
So, positive perception on gig economy should be instilled within the society especially when jobs can still be done anywhere while leveraging on technology.
In Malaysia, it is good to see the government has its eye on the gig economy with incentives involving gig workers' welfare in Penjana package worth RM75 million.
Measures include a matching grant of up to RM50 million for gig economy platforms that contribute to the workers through Socso and EPF's i-Saraan, and RM25 million for MDEC's Global Online Workforce (GLOW) programmes. These measures seem to be attractive as beneficiaries' social safety will be partly taken care of.
Additionally, the launch of RM100 million Ministry of Higher Education's National Economic Reform Plan (Penjana) Career Advancement Programme (KPT-CAP) is rather timely to enhance the freelancing capability of graduates in a gig economy.
This newly announced programme is important to upskill the youngsters, as being in a gig economy also requires specific skillsets. If not addressed, it can end up with freelancers being underpaid or not paid although they are overworked.
According to PayPal, 58 per cent of freelancers in several Southeast Asian countries experienced not being paid because they are not taken seriously by the clients.
Hence, this calls for an efficient utilisation of the existing measures that had been announced by the government and for the leading government agencies to monitor the effectiveness and the level of awareness amongst target group so that the benefits would reach them.
Although gig economy has its drawbacks pertaining to its low benefits, the fact that it is a growing contributor to our national economy needs to be valued.
SOFEA AZAHAR
EMIR Research
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times