

"We just didn't have a service like TaskRabbit. "My mother was a single mom and sacrificed a lot to take care of me and my brother," Brown-Philpot said. "Where I grew up, there were a lot of people in my neighborhood who were well-meaning people who had a good work ethic but just couldn't find a job." "It's really job creation," Brown-Philpot said about the labor market shifts. In exchange for connecting a customer to a professional, TaskRabbit takes 30% of the total sale. They set their own hourly rates, get training on using the app and operate as independent contractors.įor most taskers, the company said, the work is a part-time gig to supplement income from another part-time or full-time job.īut, the company said, there are some super-productive taskers who are able to earn $150,000 a year. In each market it operates, the taskers apply to contract with the company online.

and Sacramento, Calif.īy June, TaskRabbit said it plans to be in 34 cities, and, while it declined to disclose sales, the company said it aims to be profitable this year. Last week, in addition to the two Michigan cities, the company added service in Baltimore Durham, N.C. With offices in San Francisco, New York and London, the 60-employee company has expanded operations to 29 markets. The rabbit part of the name also brings to mind something that is quick and prolific. The privately held company, which started in 2008, was named TaskRabbit because it highlights that the company is about doing task, and "everyone loves bunnies," Brown-Philpot said. So far, TaskRabbit has enlisted 60,000 workers globally and is seeking more in metro Detroit. and Europe is engaged in independent work, and suggested that with the explosive growth of digital platforms and online marketplaces, "we have only just begun to see their impact." The McKinsey study concluded 20% to 30% of the working-age population in the U.S. "A full-time job with one employer has been considered the norm for decades, but increasingly, this fails to capture how a large share of the workforce makes a living," said a study published in October by the McKinsey Global Institute, a New York-based private-sector think tank. "A narrow focus only on traditional jobs ignores tens of millions who put together their own income streams and shape their own work lives." Still, they represent a growing part of the workforce. There are also no sick days, no holidays, no vacation days. While these freelance jobs have become popular, they tend to lack the security and certainty traditional jobs have provided: a minimum wage, steady and predictable hours, health insurance, credentials, training, and in many cases, a retirement plan. Shipt and Instacart shop for your groceries and deliver them to your door.īut, the people doing the work for these companies are independent contractors who are paid by the job. Airbnb rents out homes, condos, and apartments for a night - or more - at a time. Uber and Lyft, for instance, are a kind of taxi and delivery service, in which you can use an app to arrange for a ride. In what is sometimes referred to as a sharing economy or a gig economy, these companies are changing the labor market by offering employment opportunities and the flexibility for workers to decide when, where and how they want to earn a wage. On average, the cost for the services is $35 an hour, and the jobs - in case anything goes wrong - are covered by the company for up to $1 million in property damage.īut, more than offer you services, the company is part of a growing number of enterprises - including Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Shipt and Instacart - that are leveraging technology to transform the way people purchase goods and services and work, emphasizing convenience and flexibility. The company vets the taskers with background and identity checks.
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"If you need a handyman to hang pictures on the wall, or to mount the TV, or you need someone to help you assemble IKEA furniture - or you just need minor repairs - you can download our app and within a few minutes, hire someone who can show up and complete the task for you."
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"TaskRabbit is a safe and convenient way for you to hire someone to help you with your chores around the house," the company's CEO, Stacy Brown-Philpot, who grew up in Detroit, said in an interview with the Free Press. The app lets you request help with jobs, select the workers - whom the company calls taskers - and pays them.
