They are the people formerly known as employees. In a broad range of service industries, workers who once drew a steady salary are cutting out the employer and plying their services direct to people who used to pay companies, rather than people, to meet their needs.
This is the on-demand economy, the pattern of work exemplified by online systems such as Uber, a smartphone app that matches freelance taxi drivers to city dwellers who need a ride. Such services promise great efficiencies; idle resources can be harnessed more easily, whether they are empty bedrooms or the working hours of the underemployed. But there is also a transfer of risk.
In the short term, at least, company men and women were insulated from the vicissitudes of economic fortune. Whether it was faulty equipment or business ups and downs, much of the risk fell on companies rather than individuals. The on-demand economy sweeps away many of these safeguards. When misfortune strikes, workers are on their own.