October 19, 2022
The ‘gig economy’ refers to a labor market that relies heavily on temporary and part-time positions filled by independent contractors and freelancers rather than on full-time permanent employees.
It has grown from its beginnings with such companies as Uber to have an impact on many industries, particularly after the change in working habits coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I thought you might be interested in viewing a webinar and online discussion I participated in last week exploring the topic.
The webinar was coordinated and hosted by the City of Toronto and the Intergovernmental Committee for Economic and Labour Force Development, (ICE) which facilitates collaboration on economic development and labour force development activities across the three orders of government in Toronto.
The session begins with a presentation by Deloitte Canada’s Evelyn Paul and Simon Webb, with an overview of their ICE-commissioned research report “The Gig Economy and Its Effects on Racialized and Immigrant Populations in Toronto” .
I then joined the other panel members in providing insights and perspectives on the gig economy in general and made a short powerpoint presentation. This was followed by questions from the audience.
The webinar can be viewed through the link below and my presentation, as well as the Deloitte introduction, can be downloaded though these links:
I would like to thank Judy Morgan, Chair of the ICE Committee, for inviting me to the webinar and my fellow panel members for their enlightening data and commentary:
- Laura Lam, PhD student at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto and researcher at the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) program in Migration and Integration
- Jennifer Scott, labour organizer with Gig Workers United and food delivery gig worker. and
- Tobias Novogrodsky, Director of Business Growth Services in Economic Development and Culture at the City of Toronto, who moderated the discussion.
Please contact me with any questions you may have or for assistance working through your staffing matters.