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

The sales and receipts from the gig work in Pennsylvania have increased over 28% in the last decade. Read along to get more insights on the trends for the rise of the freelance, independent and gig work in Pennsylvania.
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Updated Dec 6, 2022

The rise of the industrial economy in the 70s had the working population in Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania?

25% of the small business workforce in Pennsylvania work as independent workers.

Comparative analysis of gig economy and employment datasets for small businesses suggest a dramatic shift in how working population in Pennsylvania work: 25% of the small business workforce work as independent workers. In Pennsylvania there are 872,647 self employed gig workers ( freelancers and contractors ) compared to 2,565,473 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 Pennsylvania. As per the current 2019 NES ( released on June 30, 2022) there are 872,647 gig businesses in Pennsylvania, up from 762,405 in 2010. 


Year No. of gig workers Receipts ($billion)
2010 762,405 34
2011 772,193 36
2012 774,209 37
2013 778,528 37
2014 799,663 39
2015 811,890 39
2016 831,951 40
2017 849,036 41
2018 865,041 43
2019 872,647 44
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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 Pennsylvania?

The sector " Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services " contributed the most whereas the lowest contribution came from Utilities 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 100,000 gig workers. The sector " Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services " contributed the most with the number of gig workers as 125,179. The lowest contributor to the gig economy was the Utilities sector with just 558 gig workers across Pennsylvania. 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 31,956 89,799 57,843 181
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 79,270 97,722 18,452 23
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 53,849 67,804 13,955 26
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 40,208 53,062 12,854 32
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 112,753 125,179 12,426 11
Educational Services 22,371 34,349 11,978 54
Accommodation and Food Services 11,941 15,479 3,538 30
Retail Trade 76,535 78,906 2,371 3
Health Care and Social Assistance 63,033 64,656 1,623 3
Information 10,119 10,917 798 8
Construction 94,305 95,099 794 1
Finance and Insurance 25,091 25,628 537 2
Manufacturing 13,408 13,870 462 3
Utilities 565 558 -7 -1
Wholesale Trade 13,797 12,629 -1,168 -8
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 3,516 1,850 -1,666 -47
Other Services (except Public Administration) 102,352 76,979 -25,373 -25
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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 Pennsylvania. Analysis of the data suggests that the biggest driver in the gig economy across Pennsylvania is the Transportation and Warehousingsector. The number of gig workers increased by 181% from 31,956 in 2010, increasing to 89,799 in the data from the current reference year NES 2019. 

For the same time period, the biggest loss of 25,373 was witnessed in the Other Services (except Public Administration) sector. The overall decline in this sector over the last decade was at 25%, witnessing a decrease to 76,979 ( in 2019 ) from 102,352 ( 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 (%)
Philadelphia 77,675 109,486 31,811 41
Allegheny 73,833 86,412 12,579 17
Montgomery 66,061 74,394 8,333 13
Delaware 38,648 45,292 6,644 17
Bucks 49,434 55,168 5,734 12
Lancaster 39,463 43,908 4,445 11
Chester 39,847 44,012 4,165 10
Lehigh 20,797 24,800 4,003 19
Northampton 16,924 19,780 2,856 17
Dauphin 15,206 17,604 2,398 16
Cumberland 14,818 16,975 2,157 15
York 25,086 26,978 1,892 8
Luzerne 16,395 18,060 1,665 10
Berks 23,828 25,442 1,614 7
Butler 11,473 12,767 1,294 11
Monroe 9,924 11,174 1,250 13
Westmoreland 20,721 21,856 1,135 5
Washington 12,102 13,140 1,038 9
Centre 9,230 10,219 989 11
Lackawanna 11,628 12,488 860 7
Lebanon 7,944 8,655 711 9
Beaver 8,492 8,971 479 6
Pike 3,744 4,157 413 11
Adams 6,295 6,661 366 6
Blair 6,027 6,387 360 6
Franklin 8,863 9,194 331 4
Union 2,623 2,823 200 8
Lawrence 4,882 5,064 182 4
Columbia 3,182 3,362 180 6
Erie 13,799 13,933 134 1
Wayne 3,855 3,985 130 3
Lycoming 6,196 6,323 127 2
Carbon 3,281 3,378 97 3
Perry 2,804 2,899 95 3
Mifflin 2,670 2,742 72 3
Clinton 1,862 1,912 50 3
Bedford 3,224 3,273 49 2
Northumberland 4,499 4,530 31 1
Snyder 2,860 2,881 21 1
Fayette 6,233 6,250 17 0
Schuylkill 6,743 6,760 17 0
Juniata 1,819 1,816 -3 0
Fulton 941 922 -19 -2
Montour 1,042 1,015 -27 -3
Sullivan 490 457 -33 -7
Wyoming 1,780 1,747 -33 -2
Cameron 250 208 -42 -17
Greene 1,541 1,488 -53 -3
Clearfield 4,214 4,151 -63 -1
Forest 317 248 -69 -22
Jefferson 2,978 2,901 -77 -3
Huntingdon 2,532 2,442 -90 -4
Armstrong 3,556 3,464 -92 -3
Warren 2,182 2,074 -108 -5
Potter 1,243 1,133 -110 -9
Bradford 3,531 3,418 -113 -3
Tioga 2,574 2,459 -115 -4
Mercer 6,402 6,285 -117 -2
Clarion 2,459 2,341 -118 -5
Elk 1,630 1,510 -120 -7
Crawford 5,405 5,280 -125 -2
Somerset 4,591 4,466 -125 -3
Indiana 4,986 4,846 -140 -3
McKean 2,191 2,049 -142 -6
Cambria 6,233 6,085 -148 -2
Venango 2,903 2,708 -195 -7
Susquehanna 3,248 3,039 -209 -6
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Which counties contribute the most to the gig economy in Pennsylvania?

The top 5 counties have 42.49% of the entire 872,647 gig workforce

Looking at the county distribution for the gig economy workers across Pennsylvania, the top 5 counties have 42.49% of the entire 872,647 gig workforce.

On the other hand the lowest contributing locations contribute approximately 0.33% of the state level gig workforce with 2,850 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 Philadelphia county, where the number of gig workers increased 41% from being 77,675 in 2016 to 109,486 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 Pennsylvania over the last decade

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

Across Pennsylvania, the number of male workers in gig economy stood at 497,000 compared to 331,000 female workers

Across Pennsylvania, 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 Pennsylvania, the number of male workers in gig economy stood at 497,000 compared to 331,000 female workers.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by gender, in Pennsylvania

The distribution on the basis of ethnicity was stark and the number of non hispanics in the gig workforce stood at 804,000 compared to 43,500 workers with ethnicity as hispanic.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by ethnicity, in Pennsylvania

On the basis of race the number of gig workers from the white population was found to be 736,000 compared to the 72,000 from black and 39,000 asian population.


Demographic breakdown of gig economy workers, by race, in Pennsylvania


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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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