New research on gig workers from Branch, the workforce payments platform that helps businesses accelerate payments to empower their workers, reveals the latest industry trends.
The 3rd annual Branch x Marqeta Gig Payments Report surveys “the work and payments preferences of over 1,000 gig workers and independent contractors in the US.”
This year’s report uncovered “the growth of gig platforms as workers choose gig work as their primary source of income.”
- Gig over salary: 61% cited that they complete gig work for their primary income, a nearly 3x increase from 2021, where 21% of those surveyed said the same.
- Inflation woes continue: Inflation continues to be a main driver for workers seeking gig work opportunities, with almost two-thirds (63%) picking up more jobs due to inflation and higher prices.
- Generation Gig: Workers of all ages are more optimistic about their economic prospects in the gig economy (53%) compared to traditional salaried roles; but among Gen Z gig workers surveyed, this number rises to 58%
- Millennials lag behind in emergency savings: The number of gig workers surveyed that have $0 saved in case of emergency rose to 37% this year, up from 31% a year ago. Millennial gig workers in particular are feeling the pinch, with 41% having $0 saved.
- Embracing digital wallets: Over one-third of gig workers (34%) have turned to an online or digital bank for their primary banking services. They’re also open to more, with 83% citing they’re interested or would be open to financial services offered from the gig platforms they work with.
As covered earlier this year, Bungii, the “fast-growing” platform for big and bulky last-mile delivery, announced it has adopted workforce payments platform Branch in order “to streamline the payments experience for its growing network of drivers. Drivers that sign up with Bungii will onboard with Branch to receive fast, easy access to payments.
Currently serving in 50 major metros across 500 U.S. cities, Bungii offers same-day delivery services “to fulfill all retail and commercial delivery needs.”
With thousands of drivers on its platform and plans to quadruple fleet size over the next year, Bungii selected Branch as its preferred driver payments solution “to support the company’s rapid expansion as it continues to scale.”
Branch makes it simple “to pay contractors in a single click by offering Bungii the ability to easily bank new drivers so that they can get paid day one.”
Mark Vanderweide, VP of Product at Bungii, said:
“Branch simplifies payments onboarding for both our drivers and operations teams by banking workers within seconds—this not only eliminates the need to manually enter bank-routing information, but also allows us to provide an engaging work and payments experience, without any extra work from our team. It not only improves the lives of our drivers—who benefit from faster payments and improved cash flow—but it’s saved us time and money right off the bat. We went from paying three percent or more each month (with our previous solution) to a free solution that practically automated the hours we previously dedicated to driver payments.”