Dive Brief:

• The hospitality industry is borrowing from Uber's playbook by hiring on-demand workers to fill jobs as needed, according to Fisher Phillips. Like most industries these days, hospitality is having trouble filling openings and therefore is turning to gig workers to fill the void.
• Philadelphia-based Jobletics and PeopleMatter are among platforms used to summon hourly workers as easily as they would hail a ride, says Fisher Phillips. Employers can notify their need for workers in advance or at a moment's notice, when, for example, a permanent worker calls in sick. The staffing firm employs the on-demand workers, pays their wages and handles HR issues.
• Fisher Phillips says platforms like Jobletics and PeopleMatter could revolutionize the way industries beyond hospitality fill the workplace. 

Dive Insight:

The gig economy might help the hospitality industry adjust to H-2B visa shortages and economic downturns, which hit the industry the hardest. 

Intuit and Emergent Research predict that 10 million Americans will belong to the gig economy by 2021; they already numbered 3.8 million in 2016. As people want more work flexibility, can't find or don't want full-time work, or see automation threatening their jobs, more could join the ranks of independent contractors, freelancers, temporary workers and consultants. 

Employers benefit from on-demand workers by getting the skills they need without the cost of benefits and other perquisites. Although that could change if lawmakers revisit plans to update decades-old labor laws to accommodate this major change in the workforce. In the meantime, employers need to understand the difference between employees and independent contractors to comply with the law.