The government found out measuring the size of the gig economy is a hard job.
The Labor Department fell short on its ambition to paint a clearer picture of the sector that includes Uber drivers and Thumbtack painters. In a report released Friday, the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 1.6 million people, or about 1% of the U.S. workforce, use apps and sites to find work. But it was unable to reliably determine how many were doing such work as their main form of employment, rather than as a side hustle....