The gig economy — with its flexible side jobs — is helping students earn extra cash between classes to pay for college.
Andrew Noll is one college student who has reaped the benefits of the on-demand economy, using the neighborhood social network website Nextdoor to connect with neighbors in Columbus, Ohio, for lawn care jobs.
“I’m debt-free going into next year,” says the 19-year-old Ohio University student, who makes around $17.50 an hour doing yard work. “I’m hoping to pay for my next year, which is $23,000 for tuition and housing.”
Running errands under TaskRabbit, making deliveries for Postmates or driving for ride-booking services Uber Technologies and Lyft — to name a few — are a couple ways students are funding their education.
“On-demand jobs are a good fit for college students due to the high flexibility of the work and the low barriers for entry,” says Neal McNamara, a spokesman for TINYpulse, a Seattle-based firm that gauges employee satisfaction and engagement. “For many services, all you need is a smartphone.”
The so-called gig economy in the U.S. has grown rapidly in recent years, creating more independent contract work, and younger workers — those ages 18 to 34 — are the most receptive to working in this sector, according to a recent survey by Philadelphia-based Beyond, The Career Network.
Students say they can earn more through on-demand work, which experts say ranges from $10 to $20 an hour, compared with hourly wages in retail or traditional jobs in the food and beverage sector.
In general, an hourly worker in the food and beverage industry makes around $9.16, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics for May 2015.
“On-demand definitely pays more than a lot of the traditional retail or service jobs,” says Harry Campbell, a Los Angeles-based aerospace engineer who has driven for Uber and Lyft and runs a driver blog called The Rideshare Guy.
Students can explore some of these on-demand jobs to earn money in the summertime or during the school year.
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— Ride-hailing services: Of the 450,000 active “partners” who drive for Uber, more than 10 percent are students, according to a 2015 Benenson Strategy Group survey conducted for Uber.
Uber and Lyft, for example, require drivers to be at least 21 years of age. Most of the Uber drivers who are in school are college seniors or grad school students, an Uber spokeswomen told U.S. News.
“I used to take jobs at shoe stores, but the biweekly checks weren’t going far enough,” says Joshua Ridley, 22, of Baltimore, who switched from retail to Lyft, Uber’s competitor, earlier this year.
The senior marketing major at Morgan State University, located in Baltimore, says he’s able to work up to 30 hours a week through the service — making enough money to pay his living expenses.
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“It’s a great source of income for a college student,” he says. Lyft advertises on its website that its drivers can make up to $35 an hour.
— Delivery services: Postmates, an on-demand delivery service similar to its competitor DoorDash — which mainly delivers food — dispatches couriers to pick up and drop off items from local stores to clients.
Unlike Uber or Lyft, the minimum age for these on-demand delivery services is 18. And students may not need a pair of wheels to make deliveries, experts say, since these services operate in densely populated areas — delivery locations include Bethesda, Maryland, and West Hollywood, California, to name a few.
Shane Ham, 18, who just finished his first year at New York University, says he just started delivering items for Postmates by foot around the streets of Manhattan for extra spending money.
“It’s perfect for students actually,” he says, though he couldn’t imagine anyone doing it as a full-time job. “I could get a retail job to cover my expenses or do Postmates — which is a lot easier because I don’t have to schedule time away.”
The NYU marketing major says he makes about $30 or $40 in two hours on a “good stretch,” delivering mainly food to different addresses around the West Village and SoHo.
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— Running errands and completing odd jobs: On-demand experts say many users are looking for a “trusted person”– whether it’s a neighbor, as on Nextdoor, or someone vetted, as with TaskRabbit — to do errands or odd jobs such as moving heavy furniture.
Most of those who run on-demand errands are ages 18 to 34, according to a 2016 TINYpulse survey about on-demand workers, which finds that their reason for choosing this type of work is schedule flexibility.
“If you’re in college and in class or that type of thing, on-demand work is a natural fit,” McNamara from TINYpulse says.
Sometimes Noll, the Ohio University sophomore, drives home from Athens, Ohio, on weekends during the school year to do paid tasks for Nextdoor connections.
“It’s a great way to make money if you’re hard-working,” the debt-free engineering major says. “It’s hard on my body, but I know that I’m not going to do this all my life because I’m going to be an engineer.”
Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.
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Turn to the On-Demand Economy to Pay for College originally appeared on usnews.com
