The growing contingent of freelancers, independent contractors and the self-employed in the American workforce has consumed the U.S. business community and media in recent years, even as researchers wrestle with how to draw a clear picture of the nature of the country's teeming network of workers earning income outside the traditional employment structure. Large, multinational companies are built and fueled in some cases largely by these independent workers. Estimates of the size of those participating in the gig economy vary, but a 2018 study by Intuit predicted that 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors of some kind by 2020.
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