Alberta ranks at the forefront of provinces in terms of the percentage of people whose main job is temporary "on-demand" work. About 5% of the workers in the major Prairie provinces in Western Canada, in terms of population size and economic scale, aged between 15 and 69, had this type of job in the last quarter of 2022, according to recent data issued by Statistics Canada obtained by the media. It shows that during the last three months of 2022, Statistics Canada estimated the number of people working in such temporary jobs in Alberta to be about 116,700 people.

The federal agency describes these jobs as "paid activities that involve short-term tasks or jobs without a guarantee of stable employment."

Prominent examples of these jobs include working for food delivery or transportation service apps, such as "Uber," "DoorDash," and "SkipTheDishes."

"Some of these activities are carried out through platforms or digital applications, while others are executed offline through traditional means that help workers connect with customers or companies," according to Statistics Canada.

Across all of Canada, the percentage of workers in the same age group, 15 - 69 years, whose main job was this type of work in the last quarter of 2022 was about 4.5%, i.e., around 871,000 people.

Ontario and Quebec, respectively the two largest provinces by population and economic scale, ranked directly after Alberta, with the rate in both being 4.7%, i.e., about 359,000 people in the former and 203,000 people in the latter.

British Columbia, the largest of the four western provinces and the third largest province in the country, ranked at the bottom of the list with a percentage of about 3.6%.

Professor Eric Myers, a professor of human resources and finance at Mount Royal University in Calgary, the largest city in Alberta, believes that demographic trends in the province will affect the proportion of workers doing "on-demand" work.

"Immigration data shows that people are coming to Alberta in increasing numbers," says Myers.

According to Statistics Canada, immigrants holding permanent residence visas made up 57.5% of the 365,000 people who worked for a delivery or transportation service app in Canada during 2023.

Jim Stanford, an economist and director of the "Future of Work Centre" in Vancouver, the largest city in British Columbia, explains that there is increasing interest in doing this type of work.

However, Stanford points out that the number of people who are able to earn a good enough living through performing such work is surprisingly low in most cases.

"Stanford said that the amount of time you usually spend unpaid waiting for the app to give you another task may amount to half of your total workday if not more."