Sarah Kessler

*Financial Times Business Book of the Month* The full-time job is disappearing. Today more workers than ever are going freelance - driving for Uber or cycling for Deliveroo, developing software or consulting for investment banks. Welcome to the gig economy. In Gigged, Sarah Kessler meets the people forging this new world of unorthodox employment: from the computer programmer who chooses exactly which hours he works each week, via the Uber driver who is trying to convince his peers to unionise, to the charity worker who thinks freelance gigs might just transform the fortunes of a declining rural town. Their stories raise crucial questions about the future of work. What happens when job security, holidays and benefits become a thing of the past? How can freelancers find meaningful, well-paid employment? And could the gig economy really change the world of work for ever? Praise for Gigged `Essential reading for anyone who is interested in understanding the future of our economy and society.' Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism `Sarah Kessler's wonderful book offers unprecedented illumination of the promise, and the peril, of the gig economy.' Martin Ford, author of The Rise of the Robots `If you want to know how work is changing and how you too must change to keep up, you must read this book.' Dan Lyons, author of Disrupted `Kessler's timely book explores the personal, corporate and societal stories behind a massive tech-driven shift away from permanent office-based employment.' Books of the Month, Financial Times `Deep reporting and graceful storytelling . . . Kessler's analysis is both astute and nuanced.' Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive

PROFIT INNOVATION GREED WELCOME TO THE GIG ECONOMY Between Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts, freelance jobs are becoming an increasingly prominent part of our economy. GIGGED goes inside the Silicon Valley companies leading the way to this emerging `gig economy'. It tells the stories of the workers - from computer programmers to online comment moderators - who are getting by in a new wave of precarious, short-term employment. And it sketches out what tomorrow's economy might look like: one where the fortunate get to work when they want, how they want, while the rest live lives of extraordinary hardship. It might just be the future of work for all of us.