Diving into the Gig Economy
All Things Insights: We are here on the third and final day of TMRE 2025, The Market Research Event, and we have the pleasure of being with Michael Nevski, Director of Global Insights at Visa. Thanks, Michael, for coming on, as always, to talk about insights with us. You presented a session already at the show, and it was all about the gig economy. That would be a great theme for our audience because this concept is trending in this current economic environment.
Michael Nevski: Absolutely. Thank you for asking me. It’s a fairly nascent trend but actually it’s continued to grow. About one in every six Americans is getting involved in the gig economy. It’s very interesting that a primary motivation for those who get involved in the gig economy, it’s more about freedom. It’s more about flexibility in following their passion than monetary rewards. What we observed in the U.S. is that the gig economy is driven by Gen Z, Millennials, younger people who get involved.
Surprisingly, affluent consumers also get involved by doing some kind of a side gig, whether they’re semi-retired or maybe they have a job, but they’re actually doing it for monetary reward because they want to save extra money to do something like travel, see new places, maybe buying some goods or products they’re passionate about.
What’s also an interesting aspect of this trend is that more people are getting involved in the gig economy. We’re projecting that from 14% it is going to grow to 25- to 30% in the future. It’s important for us as brands and insights professionals to really understand that demographic cohort, that segment overall, those who get involved in the gig economy and their needs, not only in terms of products and services, but their lifestyles, what they’re requiring, and their motivations. It’s a very interesting topic to watch within society.
Introducing the Gig Workers
All Things Insights: That’s a great overview of the gig economy. Is it geared towards any particular demographics? Do you see this in your studies at all?
Michael Nevski: Primarily, it’s driven by Gen Z and Millennials and with some share of Boomers getting involved. Gen X, not so much. If we’re comparing overall share of the population in the U.S. versus generations, those who are involved, or primarily highly over indexed are the Gen Zers and Millennials. Then you start looking at full time, part time, income versus gender. Another interesting demographic fact is that the overall U.S. population of male consumers are leading in many aspects of that overall population percentage and in terms of those who get involved in gig. But when it comes to side hustles, three out of five are female consumers.
These female consumers, who actually are working full time, running families, raising kids, but because they still feel compelled to get involved because of their passion, because maybe it gives them some flexibility, maybe they’re doing some teaching or tutoring on a weekend, for example.
Another very interesting aspect of that female demographic is that they actually don’t utilize digital platforms to find a gig environment or business because there is this bias that gig workers utilize Uber, Lyft, Fiverr or TaskRabbit, but actually 60% of them stated in the latest study that they do it direct. Either they have their own website or are finding referrals, walking a dog, teaching piano lessons, for example.
Only 23% get involved via digital platforms, with 40% actually saying that they get involved by doing independent contracting work, not as an employee and not to register the business, but pretty much doing the 1099. So it’s one employer at a time, let’s say six months involvement. And again, they value that flexibility.
I have a friend like that who is an IT architect. For the last 20 years, he’s been working semi and for so many very well-known brands, but he likes the project-based work where he works six months to a year on a project and then he moves on and goes to another company because it gives him that flexibility not to have the same manager, working on his own terms, but delivering the project so accomplishing what he needs. These employees like that its pays better because it’s a gross, not a net. Again, we need to keep those aspects in mind as we create products and services specifically tailored to gig workers.
The Consumer Outlook
All Things Insights: That’s fascinating stuff. Moving from the gig economy, here we are getting into the fourth quarter. What are your thoughts on the economic outlook for consumers in the next year? There’s always uncertainty, of course.
Michael Nevski: In terms of consumers and consumer intent, I think what I observe in consumer survey data and some other primary research is that affluent consumers still continue to spend. What it tells us is that they’re still confident about their future. Let’s define affluent consumers as those who actually have a $150,000 in household income on an annual basis. And those who fall below that, we call non-affluent consumers.
When non-affluent consumers pull back in their spending by 5%, it takes only 2% for affluent consumers to increase their spending to offset the drop in spending by non-affluent consumers. That’s the fact to keep in mind. What I observed in my research is that actually affluent consumers still feel confident about their future, still planning on spending during the holidays, still planning on traveling, and propelling the economy forward. At the same time, I think the tariff situation, geopolitical situation, and current administration policies still create a lot of uncertainty, which actually puts the overall consumer in the U.S. in a state of uncertainty and limbo.
The consumer can deal with high prices, inflation, even unemployment, but when we don’t know what’s going to happen next, it freezes us. And we’re kind of hunkering down because then, Oh, maybe I shouldn’t be spending this extra amount on a trip to Mexico. Maybe I shouldn’t be considering buying a new car or a used car because I don’t know what’s going to happen. So in that way, uncertainty is influencing the economy.
That’s why you see some of the consumer mindset reports that people are kind of lukewarm right now about the economy. What’s going to happen? Plus, we have a split mentality, in terms of what political spectrum you’re on and people on one side feeling much more confident versus those who are on the opposite side of the political spectrum. Those aspects influence consumer decisions to spend.
Staying Focused—and Taming the Wild Horse
All things Insights: Getting back to TMRE, here we are on the last day. Any takeaways from the show that you have so far, whether it’s a broad view or a specific session?
Michael Nevski: Number one from my conversations and going to many sessions, is that the conversation is pivoting. If you remember last year and the year prior, AI is coming, AI is coming. What’s going to happen to our jobs? Now it’s a much more practical conversation. We see the usefulness of this technology and how it can help us to be more efficient. Many insights practitioners are saying let’s take that and see what’s the practical use case. We can apply the technology by becoming more efficient and completing more projects because it requires us to do more with less. At the same time, we’re not talking about our jobs being in jeopardy.
We see that generative AI is becoming better and better. Now we’re already talking about automating some tasks, which would take us days to complete. It helps us to be more strategic, be more internal consultants to our organizations to influence the bottom line, to influence those crucial conversations at the executive table.
Another aspect of what I see that I really enjoyed at TMRE is about how to navigate this economy and the changing requirements by CMOs and brands in terms of how you run your insights division. For example, take Cirque du Soleil’s keynote speech. It was wonderful because you’re really looking at a customer-centric approach, and client experience approach and where insights comes in and creates that memorable experience for consumers. Those practical applications and strategies were very actionable to me.
That’s where I see we’re pivoting. Technology is here to stay and it’s going to get better. But how are we going to change and transform? How can we adapt now, how can we tame this wild horse, how can we actually ride it to our advantage, to our brand’s advantage, to our consumer advantage. How can we stay focused on being consumer-centric?
Editor’s Note: The next TMRE will take place on October 5-7, 2026, and will be co-located with Content Marketing World at the Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO.
