Why Canadians are gravitating to the gig economy

Time was when freelance work was for migrant farm labourers or a stopgap for people between jobs. The gig economy is real and is growing, a new report from BMO Financial Group confirms. It’s easy to see why companies would want to operate this way: you can easily scale up or down as the workload ebbs and flows, and there are no benefits to pay. But a surprising number of respondents to BMO’s survey choose the gig lifestyle. Older workers like the autonomy; younger ones want to augment the income from their day jobs. At the same time, they’re well aware of the drawbacks, notably the lack of benefits. The bank offers a few smart strategies for coping with the uncertainties of this form of employment.