Last week, The Atlantic looked into the question of what happens when gig economy independent contractors become employees. The story draws from the experience of marijuana dispensaries in California that were required to make their delivery drivers employees rather than independent contractors.

The story is also one example of how the gig economy continues to capture the public’s attention as governments weigh potential new regulation while people and companies become more accustomed to having the ability to get tasks done on demand and quickly.

Next month, the latest on the gig economy will be discussed during Staffing Industry Analysts’ Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference on Oct. 4 and 5 in Dallas. The conference aims to bring together staffing suppliers, workforce solutions buyers, human cloud/gig economy companies, VMS, MSP, RPO and more. SIA President Barry Asin will deliver the opening keynote.

Of course, The Atlantic’s story is just one example of recent news about the gig economy, here are some other recent stories:

• Upwork, the largest B2B human cloud firm filed paperwork for an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
• The Archbishop of Canterbury in the UK blasted the gig economy, calling it “evil.”
• The California Supreme Court adopted a tougher standard for classifying workers as independent contractors.
• The National Labor Relations Board proposed a new rule that will largely roll back an Obama-era standard on the definition of who is a joint employer.
• Human cloud/ride-share firms Uber and Lyft are always in the news. However, a smaller company called HyreCar reported second-quarter revenue rose 260% to $2.3 million — the firm aims to let anybody who owns a car to rent it out to a rideshare driver.

For more information on the Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference, click here.