“It will give us reliable, credible insight into what’s going on across a range of work arrangements — from independent contractors to temporary employees to workers holding multiple jobs at the same time,” wrote Labor Secretary Tom Perez in a blog post Monday on plans to measure the size of the US contingent workforce. “They’ll be gathering this information as part of the May 2017 Current Population Survey, and the information we get from this survey will help the department do something that’s essential to smart policymaking and smart business: understanding the past and the present so that we can prepare for the future.”