The State of Gig Economy in New York. Statistics and Trends [2022]

The sales and receipts from the gig work in New York have increased over 40% in the last decade. Read along to get more insights on the trends for the rise of the freelance, independent and gig work in New York.
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Updated Dec 1, 2022

The rise of the industrial economy in the 70s had the working population in New York strive to get a full time job with an employer and show up for work. It has been the norm for decades, but if we study the shift in employment statistics closely, there is a big revolution in the making.

The working population in New York is currently witnessing a post-industrial shift into a self dependent economy. Gen Z doesn’t want to fit in the industrial complex and look for flexibility and satisfaction in their job. 

How big is the gig economy workforce in New York?

30% of the small business workforce in New York work as independent workers.

Comparative analysis of gig economy and employment datasets for small businesses suggest a dramatic shift in how working population in New York work: 30% of the small business workforce work as independent workers. In New York there are 1,806,664 self employed gig workers ( freelancers and contractors ) compared to 4,134,448 salaried employees in small business payroll ( firms with less than 500 employees).


The gig economy workforce of self employed independent contractors, freelancers, also identified as non employer firms are becoming an important factor in New York. As per the current 2019 NES ( released on June 30, 2022) there are 1,806,664 gig businesses in New York, up from 1,575,780 in 2010. 


Year No. of gig workers Receipts ($billion)
2010 1,575,780 72
2011 1,596,899 75
2012 1,612,106 77
2013 1,626,367 79
2014 1,674,297 84
2015 1,685,636 87
2016 1,708,374 90
2017 1,751,378 93
2018 1,804,188 98
2019 1,806,664 101
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This increase in the gig worker population can be safely related to increase in employment opportunities created by the rise of online platforms such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, TaskRabbit.

Which industries contribute the most to the gig economy in New York?

The sector " Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services " contributed the most whereas the lowest contribution came from Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector.

We aim to look at the distribution of gig economy workforce across broad 17 industry levels as defined under NAICS. As per the current 2019 NES ( released on June 30, 2022), there are 1 sectors with more than 250,000 gig workers. The sector " Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services " contributed the most with the number of gig workers as 277,768. The lowest contributor to the gig economy was the Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector with just 545 gig workers across New York. The number of gig "businesses" according to the respective industry sectors is exhibited in the table below.

Exhibit 1



Industry Gig workers in 2010 Gig workers in 2019 Growth Growth (%)
Transportation and Warehousing 95,227 244,480 149,253 157
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 169,799 219,477 49,678 29
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 237,400 277,768 40,368 17
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 102,879 125,941 23,062 22
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 118,029 140,652 22,623 19
Educational Services 47,344 63,308 15,964 34
Accommodation and Food Services 27,410 32,381 4,971 18
Information 27,818 32,756 4,938 18
Retail Trade 113,993 118,857 4,864 4
Construction 134,640 138,940 4,300 3
Finance and Insurance 49,268 53,339 4,071 8
Manufacturing 16,876 17,940 1,064 6
Utilities 925 874 -51 -6
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 898 545 -353 -39
Wholesale Trade 32,445 31,230 -1,215 -4
Health Care and Social Assistance 176,377 155,558 -20,819 -12
Other Services (except Public Administration) 218,040 146,028 -72,012 -33
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The next important thing to analyze is change in the gig economy workforce across different industries over the last decade. This analysis will help us determine the true drivers in the rise of gig economy in New York. Analysis of the data suggests that the biggest driver in the gig economy across New York is the Transportation and Warehousingsector. The number of gig workers increased by 157% from 95,227 in 2010, increasing to 244,480 in the data from the current reference year NES 2019. 

For the same time period, the biggest loss of 72,012 was witnessed in the Other Services (except Public Administration) sector. The overall decline in this sector over the last decade was at 33%, witnessing a decrease to 146,028 ( in 2019 ) from 218,040 ( in 2010).

The change in the number of gig "businesses" according to the respective industry sectors over the data analysis of last 10 reference years in NES is exhibited in the table below.


County Gig workers in 2012 Gig workers in 2019 Growth Growth (%)
Queens 224,014 268,034 44,020 20
Kings 245,568 284,766 39,198 16
Nassau 130,866 154,022 23,156 18
Suffolk 121,791 141,623 19,832 16
Westchester 92,400 104,393 11,993 13
Erie 45,160 54,312 9,152 20
Bronx 111,884 120,204 8,320 7
Richmond 32,860 39,224 6,364 19
Orange 23,387 27,793 4,406 19
Monroe 43,936 48,243 4,307 10
Rockland 25,826 29,485 3,659 14
Dutchess 20,470 23,414 2,944 14
Onondaga 27,166 30,051 2,885 11
Saratoga 14,886 17,512 2,626 18
Albany 17,607 19,941 2,334 13
Ulster 15,646 17,562 1,916 12
Niagara 9,289 10,449 1,160 12
Putnam 8,836 9,818 982 11
Columbia 5,810 6,593 783 13
Schenectady 8,549 9,259 710 8
Rensselaer 8,644 9,347 703 8
Oneida 11,760 12,392 632 5
Tompkins 7,129 7,685 556 8
New York 219,249 219,769 520 0
Greene 3,382 3,866 484 14
Ontario 6,826 7,302 476 7
Warren 4,666 4,948 282 6
Sullivan 5,696 5,952 256 4
Jefferson 5,106 5,278 172 3
Montgomery 2,406 2,565 159 7
Seneca 1,778 1,920 142 8
Yates 1,858 1,989 131 7
Madison 4,198 4,323 125 3
Oswego 5,421 5,542 121 2
Broome 9,979 10,090 111 1
Delaware 3,626 3,728 102 3
Cayuga 4,147 4,246 99 2
Cortland 2,336 2,416 80 3
Schuyler 1,148 1,225 77 7
Essex 2,989 3,055 66 2
Genesee 2,929 2,975 46 2
Orleans 1,860 1,889 29 2
Chemung 3,866 3,894 28 1
Otsego 4,249 4,277 28 1
Schoharie 1,862 1,888 26 1
Clinton 3,987 4,006 19 0
Hamilton 512 524 12 2
Wyoming 2,064 2,074 10 0
Wayne 4,868 4,835 -33 -1
Lewis 1,665 1,622 -43 -3
Tioga 2,828 2,770 -58 -2
Fulton 2,795 2,728 -67 -2
Washington 3,756 3,682 -74 -2
Herkimer 3,308 3,233 -75 -2
Franklin 2,818 2,733 -85 -3
Livingston 3,603 3,517 -86 -2
Chautauqua 7,153 7,036 -117 -2
Steuben 5,242 5,068 -174 -3
Allegany 2,627 2,438 -189 -7
Chenango 2,897 2,702 -195 -7
St. Lawrence 4,979 4,772 -207 -4
Cattaraugus 3,943 3,665 -278 -7
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Which counties contribute the most to the gig economy in New York?

The top 5 counties have 59.13% of the entire 1,806,664 gig workforce

Looking at the county distribution for the gig economy workers across New York, the top 5 counties have 59.13% of the entire 1,806,664 gig workforce.

On the other hand the lowest contributing locations contribute approximately 0.40% of the state level gig workforce with 7,148 gig workers in total among them.


As expected, the top counties with the most number of gig workers are also the counties with the highest growth percentage of gig workers over the last decade. The best growth achieved is by Queens county, where the number of gig workers increased 20% from being 224,014 in 2016 to 268,034 in 2019 ( the latest reference year for NES as per the release on Jun 30 2022).


Growth in gig economy across all of the counties in New York over the last decade

Who does gig work and what are the demographic profile of gig economy workers in New York?

Across New York, the number of male workers in gig economy stood at 994,000 compared to 679,000 female workers

Across New York, the gig work runs through every demographic profile criteria. As some of the the gigs such as delivering packages, food, driving passengers have low entry barriers work has a low barrier to start with, a lot of younger and population that is not economically established tend to take up these gigs more than the rest of population.

To get more details, we analyzed the most current Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics. We found that across New York, the number of male workers in gig economy stood at 994,000 compared to 679,000 female workers.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by gender, in New York

The distribution on the basis of ethnicity was stark and the number of non hispanics in the gig workforce stood at 1,458,000 compared to 253,000 workers with ethnicity as hispanic.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by ethnicity, in New York

On the basis of race the number of gig workers from the white population was found to be 1,231,000 compared to the 218,000 from black and 254,000 asian population.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by race, in New York


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Neilsberg Research
Neilsberg Research team are data scientists with expertise in processing, analysis and visualization of big data helping small businesses make right decisions.

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