The rise of gig workers is changing the face of the US economy

Lazarus Limo usually starts his day at 10 a.m. ET, driving passengers and delivering food for Uber around Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

"I tend to set a minimum target of how much I should get by the end of the day. As soon as I get my target, that's it; I'm done for the day," he said. His goal is usually to make between $200 and $300 and, depending on the day, achieving it may take him between 8 and 10 hours, he told CNN.

But that's just his weekday job.

On weekends, Limo, who is 28 years old, works as a "Dasher," delivering food orders for DoorDash.

He is one of millions of people in the United States who participate in the so-called "gig economy," a term that has grown in popularity over the last decade to describe the rise in freelancing work through apps like Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Instacart.

Government data on this group of workers is elusive. The last time the Bureau of Labor Statistics officially tracked workers with alternate job arrangements was 2017. But workplace experts say the number of gig workers is growing, and and their impact is being felt throughout the economy. It could even be distorting government economic data, they say. For example, easy-to-access work through mobile phones may be keeping the national unemployment rate lower than it would be without the rise of these workers. It may also be a factor helping more people avoid bankruptcies, providing a fallback option for those who have been laid off from work in recent years, they say.

"People who have access to the gig economy borrow less money than people who don't. You can think of it as an alternative to debt for some people - as a way to get through volatile times," said Louis Hyman, a professor of labor and business at Cornell University. "Society needs to account for these different kinds of experiences."