President-elect Donald Trump’s rallying cry throughout the entire campaign has been to take down the establishment (“drain the swamp”). He has been particularly persistent about his promise to bring jobs back to America.
Unfortunately for much of America, these jobs he’s looking to create are not part of the new economy — which is service-oriented and technology-focused. Instead, he has consistently emphasized the need to bring back manufacturing jobs, millions of which have disappeared in the US since 2000.
The gig economy, on the other hand, is growing. The so-called “gig economy” — or the workforce that signs up for individual projects on-demand — relies on websites and apps like Handy, LinkedIn (LNKD), Uber, Lyft and TaskRabbit to connect them with jobs. Under Trump, members of the gig economy have an uncertain future, primarily because he has not addressed workplace protections for independent contractors.
Trump has been largely silent about a growing segment of the workforce — 35% to be exact. The number of people who identify as freelancers grew from 53 million in 2014 to 55 million in 2016. Even corporations are looking to hire contingent workers — according to the Intuit (INTU) 2020 report, more than 80% of large companies are looking to increase their use of a flexible workforce.
Of course, the gig economy doesn’t come without problems. In an economic speech last year, Hillary Clinton specifically cited problems with the sharing economy like the lack of workplace protections including paid sick leave, maternity leave and retirement benefits.
“This on demand or so called gig economy is creating exciting opportunities but it’s also raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future,” she said.
For his part, Trump has neglected any discussion of the independent job opportunities created by technology and the gig economy — though he has spoken out against regulations affecting companies that connect freelance workers with work.
The laissez-faire approach
Still, disruptors like Airbnb and Uber face unique regulatory hurdles from the local governments that they operate in, rather than regulations from the federal government. In other words, Trump could actually have very little impact on making it easier for companies to operate in a given city. But along with this anti-regulation stance comes his silence on workplace protections.
In a CNBC interview last year, he was asked specifically about his thoughts on Airbnb, given his career as a real estate mogul. His answer captures his laissez-faire approach on the sharing economy — he supports letting businesses operate freely as long as they don’t infringe on his livelihood.