(Sponsored content) -- If you're tired of applying for jobs and waiting to hear back, the "gig economy" has you covered. Getting a job is as easy as going to an app and submitting your information. 

"I heard through my friend, they were telling me how they would drive and make extra income," Polinario Paz, a part-time Uber/Uber Eats driver, said. "And just one day I just choose to sign up and I actually like it."

The easy of applying for a job, coupled with the flexibility most gig work allows, makes the opportunity appealing and accounts for the trend of more people taking on such jobs not only to supplement their regular income but to be the primary source of work.

"I guess it all just goes down to the flexibility that you can just open the app and just login and you're in," Paz said of working for the rideshare giant. "If you want time off or you just don't want to do it, you just get back out and get back off the app and you're pretty much out and you don't get any more requests." 

The first Uber user requested a ride using the app on July 5, 2010, in San Francisco. The next year, the service went global, with rides being offered in Paris. In July 2012, Uber began offering ice cream delivery in seven U.S. cities, a precursor to its Uber Eats service, which first became available in 2015 in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says there's no official definition of the "gig economy," but it describes a "gig" as "a single project or task for which a worker is hired, often through a digital marketplace, to work on demand" and the BLS classifies gig workers as those doing contingent work or employed under "alternative employment arrangements."

A recent report by The Hamilton Project stated that as the post-Great Recession market continues to recover, on-demand gig work benefits workers and the economy by supporting job growth and personal income. To sign up to be a driver, visit Uber.com and enter the driver portal.