One in 10 UK adults turning to gig economy 'to make ends meet'

The TUC has revealed that increasingly more people are doing gig economy work with young people most likely to do so.

In the last three years, this sector’s insecure - albeit flexible - work has doubled. The research shows that working people are struggling to make ends meet, according to TUC chief, Frances O’Grady.

Now, one in 10 UK workers find extra work via apps or websites. In 2016, this was one in 20.

Frances said: “Huge numbers are being forced to take on casual and insecure platform work - often on top of other jobs.

“But as we’ve seen with Uber, too often these workers are denied their rights and are treated like disposable labour.”

TUC’s survey of 2,235 UK residents found that young people were most likely to be using apps to find work.

One in seven (15 per cent) of workers had been involved in platform work (using laptops and smartphones) in some way - the TUC equated this to 7.5 million people.

In February 2018, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published research stating that 4.4 per cent of the population in the UK had worked in the gig economy in the past year.