The Gig is up

Unemployment has fallen - but in its place are many new ‘jobs’ involving badly paid, insecure work. Roisin Killeen takes a look at the precarious nature of the so-called ‘gig economy’

Irish unemployment is at its lowest level since 2008, officially at 6.1 per cent as of January. But, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), many of the newly-created jobs are low paid and insecure. An ICTU study, published in December 2017 and titled Insecure & Uncertain: Precarious Work in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, concluded that, for many workers, there has been an alarming growth in precarious employment ...