(Credit: Jeenah Moon)

With Americans facing record-breaking inflation rates and concerns of a recession on the horizon, the hourly workforce is looking towards gig work to fill in the gaps and make ends meet. In fact, a recent report revealed that a remarkable 36% of Americans identified as gig workers last year.

So what really is the gig economy and why is there so much hype surrounding it? The gig economy is defined as a worker's market known for short-term freelance and contract-based work. And while the gig economy has historic roots that date back to the early 1900s, we've seen an explosion in its popularity over the past few years. Why? Because the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered the needs of hourly workers, causing employees across industries to re-evaluate priorities with regard to work-life balance.

While the majority of office workers were able to transition to a remote workflow, the same was not possible for hourly jobs. And the modern hourly workforce wants – and deserves – the opportunity to choose work hours that fit within their lifestyle, not a lifestyle that's built around work. During the pandemic, gig work such as driving (Uber, Lyft) and delivery services (Amazon, DoorDash) – to name only a few – has become so much more popular in terms of job opportunities, that experts project over 50% of the U.S. workforce is likely to participate in the gig economy by 2027.