Abraham's suggestions for better worker data
In an article written by Rebecca Rainey for Bloomberg Law, Faculty Associate Katharine Abraham suggests ways to improve surveys on contractor agreements to not leave out individuals from surveys that capture workers in the gig economy.
"If you look at the current population survey, it's only a really tiny minority of people who say they have more than one job, but if you look at other surveys that ask people about whether they did any of these informal types of work over some period of time, there's a lot more of them," noted Abraham. To address this, Abraham adds that BLS should consider asking "probing" questions, such as one that asks if workers have done any other work to earn money.
"New Gig Economy Survey on Track to Give Better Worker Data (1)," Bloomberg Law, August 27, 2024, Rebecca Rainey