Almost a million Canadians are now looking to the gig economy as a primary source of income, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.
As defined by the report, gig work is “a form of employment characterized by short-term jobs or tasks which does not guarantee steady work and where the worker must take specific actions to stay employed.”
The latest available data from the fourth quarter of 2022, found that around 871,000 Canadians said that gig work was responsible for the bulk of their income.
Another 1.5 million Canadians reported having done some freelance work and short-term gigs in the year 2022.
According to the report, over 300,000 full-time jobs have vanished in Ontario since July.
“The increase in the number of gig workers in Canada is a symptom of, amongst other things, the various regulatory barriers that make certain jobs much harder to access,” policy analyst for the Montreal Economic Institute Gabriel Giguère told True North.
Another contributing factor to the increasing number of people in the gig sector is the rising amount of immigrants coming into Canada.
Digital services like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash saw their companies grow by 46% in 2023 to around 365,000 workers, up from 250,000 the year before.
Of that additional 165,000 workers, 60% were newcomers to Canada, according to the most recent Statistics Canada labour survey.
“Essentially, one thing we have noticed is that there’s a lot of work to be done for provinces recognizing training and diplomas from other Canadian provinces. If we can’t recognize the training of nurses from out-of-province – as some provinces still do – it is clear we have much less recognition for those trained outside Canada. The same goes with occupational licenses in the construction trades in Quebec for instance, where a painter needs 900 hours of training,” said Giguère.
As a result, many of these people have no choice but to join the gig workforce, who under Ontario labour laws, cannot be considered employees, which prevents them from being entitled to benefits, minimum wage and unemployment insurance.
Statistics Canada noted that in 2022, 588,000 self-employed gig workers, employed through various digital platforms, could not access the full benefits associated with being self-employed.
These benefits include things like choosing their own work hours, setting their own price and hiring paid help when needed, reads the report.
The cohort of Canada’s gig workers was only 5.5% in 2005, but jumped up to 8.2% in 2016 and then to 10% in 2020.
On the positive side of the sector, it can swiftly offer financial relief, without having to sign on for any lengthy period.
“The popularity of gig economy platforms comes not just from the flexibility they provide to workers, but from the ability to start and quit almost instantly,” said Giguère.
