Uber Seeks To Expand Into Labor Market

Credit Uber with being one of the first companies to enter the gig economy space and changing the way the world thinks about the entire industry. The company now seems poised to change the way you think of Uber itself.

It was just reported that Uber is testing an on-demand labor service in Chicago that would push the ride-sharing company closer to the space currently occupied by services like TaskRabbit. “Uber Works” would operate much like a temp labor staffing agency, pairing a willing workforce with opportunities in the events and corporate functions world—such as security personnel or food servers. Although not yet formally announced, a source indicates that the targeted workforce would be individuals who don’t currently drive for Uber. At its current formative stage, the expansion wouldn’t directly compete with Task Rabbit, Fiverr, and other consumer-facing operations, and would instead offer services to corporations themselves.

But you can imagine a situation where the company further expands this service into other spaces and becomes a multi-function platform in the gig economy world. While previous expansions of its service (Uber Eats, the food delivery service, and Uber Freight, a trucking service) seemed a natural growth for the ride-sharing giant, this new step would take the company in a brand new direction altogether.