While much of the $3.5 trillion global gig economy may have operated outside of popular culture in the past, it’s finally getting its due, Staffing Industry Analysts President Barry Asin said in a keynote today at the opening of the Collaboration in the Gig Economy conference in Dallas.

Case in point: “Gig economy” was one of the answers in a recent crossword puzzle in The New York Times.

“We’ve got a much higher profile view of gig work out in the world,” Asin said. “This is one of those overnight successes that’s been 20 to 30 years in the making.”

SIA defines the gig economy as including temporary agency work, directly hired temp workers, statement-of-work consultants, independent contractors and the “human cloud.” The last piece, the human cloud, refers to online technology platforms that enable firms and others to hire, engage and pay workers entirely online.

Independent contractor usage represents the lion’s share of global spend at $2.04 trillion. Spend in other portions of the gig economy include:

• Temporary workers sourced directly by companies, $611 billion
• SOW, $458 billion
• Temporary agency workers represent $382 billion
• Human cloud represents between $47 billion and $51 billion

In turn, the human cloud is broken down into “crowdsourcing,” “online services” and “online staffing” that links workers to people who need tasks done. For more on the definition, go to SIA’s Lexicon.

Here’s a graphic spelling out the services.

Click on image to enlarge.

Is the gig economy at an inflection point? Asin says the jury is still out. SIA research found that 13% of large North American firms that use staffing also used online staffing now that it’s been out for about 10 years — that’s about the same percentage that used VMS 10 years after VMS came on the market. Currently, 71% of such firms use a VMS, but whether online staffing use ramps up to the same extent is to be determined.

The gig economy; however, will get a much closer look this week at the conference, which runs through today and continues tomorrow.

SIA has also released a free report on the gig economy. It’s available at http://www2.staffingindustry.com/eng/Research/Free-Resources.

A more in-depth report is available to SIA corporate members online.