Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley joins the On The Move panel to discuss how gig workers are faring amid the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

Video Transcript

- Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. One of the questions they're trying to solve on Capitol Hill with the stimulus package is how do you protect people who work in the gig economy. Dan Howley, any suggestions?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, I mean, this is a part of the economy that's still new but is getting seriously hammered as a result of the shutdowns that are going on in states across the nation. We just heard obviously Massachusetts is now added to that list. Michigan is up there, as well. And so what these workers are asking for, and what Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is asking for is some kind of bailout for workers who are part of the gig economy.

There's two issues here. There's the fact that people aren't actively looking for rides on things like Uber and Lyft. But on the flip side, people are increasingly turning to delivery services like Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Seamless, as well as DoorDash. That's because restaurants are leaning on those more heavily now as a means to get any kind of revenue since they're closed in a lot of states, and only offering takeout or delivery.

The problem with that, though, is as more people turn towards the delivery services for their income, there's fewer opportunities for each driver to make deliveries. So it's kind of a double-edged sword where they're available, they're willing to make these deliveries, but as more people pour in, there's less opportunity for people to earn what they normally would have gotten out of the likes of Uber and Lyft. So these gig workers are really getting hammered across the board, regardless of what sector they're in.

- All right, Dan Howley, thank you.