It's long past time to give gig economy workers the benefits and protections of traditional jobs.

Horowitz says the 42-million-worker estimate for the gig economy is probably too small.

Could the gig economy transform every industrial process?

The gig economy also has been a haven for experienced workers in a wide range of occupations, including the service industry, construction and retail trade.

Others talk about a gig economy.

The gig economy is a bellwether for a broader shift to an Internet-powered workforce.

Now, an entrenched tech giant and an early pioneer of the entire concept of "on-demand," Amazon, is wading further into the gig economy.

Specifically, startups that are part of the sharing economy or the on-demand economy or the gig economy.

Bush has defended companies identified with the sharing or gig economy, such as Uber and Airbnb, calling them positive examples of disruptive innovation.

"What's new is the way the Gig economy has hit the demographic that used to assume a college degree from an elite school was the passport to job security."

It means confronting issues, like Rubio did at Civic Hall, about tailoring safety net benefits to the gig economy and illegal immigration.

Andrew Burton/Getty Images Add Hillary Clinton to the list of labor advocates coming after the gig economy.

Whether the work comes through an independent gig economy source or a temp agency, when a temporary employee agrees to an assignment, they receive instructions pertaining to the job.

You start to think about what it will take to flourish in the gig economy and what it will take for you to become one of those people who flourishes.

But the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank, released research today that suggests that the gig economy is growing apace and playing a significant role in the US economy.

It highlights the way public services are increasingly contracted out, but also makes a point about labour market insecurity (the same point Hillary Clinton made in a much-talked-about speech on the "gig economy" last year).

A Basic Income would also protect people from rising insecurity in our increasingly 'flexible' labour market - and the darker side of the emergent 'gig economy'- and help rebuild our crumbling welfare state.

One increasingly common path for accomplishing this transition to the gig economy is to become what Alboher calls a career "slasher": the lawyer/chef, accountant/artist or bartender/actor who combines multiple careers by choice or financial necessity.

The author of the forthcoming "The Encore Career Handbook," Alboher sees enormous opportunities in this gig economy for those workers willing to do some "reframing" to develop a necessary package of survival skills.

While Cheung didn't specify the exact challenges she meant, it's not hard to see how the growing discord in both Silicon Valley and in Washington over protections for workers in the so-called gig economy might have played a role.

The flow of more workers into the gig economy is driven by a variety of factors, Horowitz says, and is not simply because of the recession-driven desire of employers to hire by project instead of creating more permanent positions.

As the structure of the UK economy moves rapidly towards scenarios often referred to as 'uberisation', the 'sharing economy' or the 'gig economy', these different ways of working are with us, are expected to accelerate and so the current system is simply out of date.

An extensive story in The Washington Post last year made Homejoy the poster child for the many thorny issues associated with the gig economy, where workers lack basic benefits; employers advertise theoretical salaries that few ever end up earning; and customers can cancel jobs at a moment's notice with the click of a button.

And yet, as the gig economy becomes a favorite talking point in early presidential campaign stops-Hillary Clinton promising to crack down on the misclassification of workers; Jeb Bush riding shotty in Ubers like he's the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air-it seems reasonable to assume that these issues will only get messier.