Bank of America Institute (NYSE: BAC), the internal think tank that uses Bank of America’s proprietary data from their 68 million consumer accounts to glean insights into the US economy, has released a report. The update looks into how consumers are faring given the current conditions.
As noted in the update shared with CI, the Institute’s most recent report discusses how moderating wage growth is “driving an uptick in gig work, especially in younger generations who are feeling a greater impact from rising costs of living.”
The main takeaway is “that gig work is back on the rise: the percentage of Bank of America customers who received income from gig platforms through direct deposits or debit cards reached 3% in August 2023, up from 2.7% in April this year, but still down from March 2022’s 3.3%.”
The Institute shared more key findings:
Moderating wage growth has “led to a small uptick in gig job participation over the past few months.” Specifically, the percentage of Bank of America customers “who received income from gig platforms through direct deposits or debit cards reached 3% in August 2023, up from 2.7% in April.”
This increase was driven “particularly by ridesharing jobs and younger people, the former of which can be largely explained by strong travel-related spending.”
The Institute also found “that ridesharing gig workers do not tend to also have a traditional job and an increased supply of these workers has driven average monthly ridesharing gig pay down in recent months.”
Millennials and Gen Z have reportedly “seen the biggest increase in gig work as they tend to be more exposed to the rising cost of living.”
But it seems as if gig work may “not provide enough support: younger generations’ credit and debit card spending growth has consistently lagged that of Baby Boomers since mid-March, according to Bank of America internal data.”
