Term ‘gig economy’ will soon disappear, says Airtasker CEO Tim Fung

The CEO of Airtasker says like the term ‘eCommerce’, ‘gig economy’ will too disappear as more people connect with jobs online.

Airtasker CEO and Co-Founder Tim Fung. Picture: Adam Taylor

The term “gig economy” will disappear in the next few years, according to one of the key players in the sector, Tim Fung, the CEO of the online and mobile marketplace, Airtasker.

In a new report on the future of work and education, Mr Fung argues that the term will fade from our use as more and more people use online platforms to connect with jobs.

“Ten years ago people used to say they bought something from an ‘eCommerce store’ but now they just say they bought something, “ he says in the report, “CEO Perspectives: the Future of Schooling in Australia” to be released this week by Craig Laundy, the Minister for Small and Family Business.

“Working via online platforms is simply a new structure of work (and) more and more people will find work through multiple ‘gig economy’ platforms,” according to Mr Fung.

The report was produced by the Association of Independent Schools of NSW and the Knowledge Society and contains interviews with 15 CEOS canvassing their views on how schools need to change to prepare students for workplace change.

Excerpts will be published in tomorrow’s issue of The Deal magazine in The Australian.

Mr Fung says about 70 per cent of those on Airtasker complete fewer than five jobs per month so the platform is mainly for earning additional income.

But there were “thousands of people” earning between $5000 and $10,000 per month with the top earner making $170,000 last year.

Commenting on the need to teach new skills, Mr Fung said the value of memorising material was decreasing rapidly because of the “ubiquitous access to well-defined, structured data” through Wikipedia and Google.

Also in the report, the managing director of the ABC, Michelle Guthrie agrees Google is changing education.

“There is now a sense that most of the information that is being imparted you can get by searching Google, “she says. “So you need to understand how to find facts and how to test facts and to be able to then say, what does that mean? How do I take data and analyse it, and how do I actually use that to have insights? I think that’s the critical piece that needs to change.”

Ms Guthrie says that the skills of the future will be around curiosity, adaptability and “that sense of being able to pivot and able to take in new information and make decisions”.

She says that leading the ABC — an organisation of 4000 people — she had been surprised how much of leadership was about empowering people to get the best out of them, making sure there was alignment around strategy, and making sure they were “ single minded” about the organisation’s purpose.

The Future of Work special: The Deal, out tomorrow.

Cover of The Australian's Deal Magazine August 2018.