Side Hustle Safety Net

How Vulnerable Workers Survive Precarious Times

Alexandrea J. Ravenelle

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520387294
• eBook ISBN: 9780520387317
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Labour Economics
• Index: Social Sciences

The first major study of how the pandemic affected gig workers—a sociological exploration that reads like a novel.
 
This is the story of what the most vulnerable wage earners—gig workers, restaurant staff, early-career creatives, and minimum-wage laborers—do when the economy suddenly collapses. In Side Hustle Safety Net, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle builds on interviews with nearly two hundred gig-based and precarious workers, conducted during the height of the pandemic, to uncover the unique challenges they faced in unprecedented times.
 
This book looks at both the officially unemployed and the “forgotten jobless”—a digital-era demographic that turned to side hustles—and reveals how they fared. CARES Act assistance allowed some to change careers, start businesses, perhaps transform their lives. However, gig workers and those involved in “polyemployment” found themselves at the mercy of outdated unemployment systems, vulnerable to scams, and attempting dubious survival strategies. Ultimately, Side Hustle Safety Net argues that the rise of the gig economy, partnered with underemployment and economic instability, has increased worker precarity with disastrous consequences.

Table of contents

• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• 1. “Officially Unemployed” or “Forgotten Jobless”?
• 2. The Side Hustle Safety Net
• 3. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, Scam Jobs
• 4. Making More and Moving On Up
• 5. Strategies of Survival
• 6. Stuck in Place
• 7. It’s a Beautiful Life
• 8. Learning from Covid
• Appendix: Research Methodology
• Notes
• References
• Index