Gig workers face shifting roles, competition in pandemic
I started to juggle three apps to make ends meet, said Okawa, who recently reduced her work hours after receiving unemployment benefits. She said she enjoys the flexibility of choosing her own hours but hopes not to have to turn to gig work in the future. Gig workers are also jockeying for those jobs from all fronts. DoorDash launched an initiative to help out-of-work restaurant workers sign up for delivery work. But that $600 benefit will expire at the end of July, and the $2 trillion government relief package that extended unemployment benefits to gig workers expires at the end of the year.