Future of Work

24% of Americans report earning money from the digital ‘platform economy’ in the past year. The extra income they make is a luxury for some, but a necessity for others.

Much of U.S. job growth over the past 25 years has been in occupations that require higher levels of education, training and experience – a trend that seems likely to continue, based on our analysis of official government job-growth projections.

As the U.S. work environment continues to shift, the public is adapting to the new realities of the workplace and rethinking the skills they need to compete.

Americans who live in majority-minority communities are more likely than those who reside in predominately white neighborhoods to say that ride-hailing apps serve neighborhoods that taxis won’t visit.

How scholars, companies and workers are using Mechanical Turk, a ‘gig economy’ platform, for tasks computers can’t handle.

The sharing and on-demand economy has grown in the U.S., and some Americans are “super users”: 7% have used six or more shared and on-demand online services.

We interviewed Arun Sundararajan, a professor of information, operations and management sciences at New York University, and a leading expert on the sharing economy. Sundararajan is the author of the recently released book “The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism.”

In our survey, we asked respondents who had heard of the sharing economy to tell us – in their own words – how they would describe the term.

Digital technology has ushered in a slew of new shared, collaborative and on-demand online services ranging from virtual marketplaces to home sharing. Our report examines the scope and impact of these services.

The sharing economy and on-demand services are weaving their way into the lives of many Americans, raising difficult issues around jobs, regulation and the potential emergence of a new digital divide.