US Gig Workforce Seen Reaching 86 Million by 2027 as AI Pushes More Jobs Into Contract Work
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 18
US Gig Workforce Seen Reaching 86 Million by 2027 as AI Pushes More Jobs Into Contract Work
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 18
Summary
About 60 million Americans — 39% of the workforce — already do freelance or gig work, and Statista projects that figure will rise to 86 million by 2027.
AI is accelerating the shift by letting companies strip routine tasks from full-time roles and rehire people as contractors, a model Klarna used after replacing hundreds of service jobs with a chatbot and later bringing back humans in an "Uber-type" setup.
The fastest-growing gig segment is now knowledge work — including customer service, coding, finance and legal support — while AI firms such as Mercor hired more than 30,000 contractors in 2025 for training tasks.
Workers and labor advocates say the tradeoff is flexibility for weaker protections, lower pay stability and fewer benefits; at least 17 states already classify gig nursing apps outside many staffing-agency rules.
Union drives and policy proposals — from contractor protections to universal benefits and an ILO treaty — are emerging as a broader fight over whether AI-driven efficiency will remake white-collar work into precarious gig labor.
As AI creates a new class of professional gig workers, who will build their safety net?
After Klarna's AI reversal, what is the true cost of replacing human workers?
Majority Freelance by 2027: The AI-Powered Transformation and Policy Challenges of the Global Gig Economy
Overview
The gig economy is experiencing an unprecedented surge from 2026 to 2028, fundamentally reshaping the global labor market and increasing its economic significance. This flexible work model is rapidly expanding and is expected to become the dominant form of employment for a significant portion of the workforce, with a majority of Americans projected to be freelancers by 2027. The number of gig workers in the United States is anticipated to keep rising over the next decade, highlighting a sustained transformation in how people work and how businesses operate.