(Sponsored content) – As more and more Americans are looking for employment alternatives in the emerging gig economy, Uber is proving to be an attractive option with easy access.

Uber is accessible to anyone. By creating an account on the app or website, it is easy to go through the hiring process. It is a method that has been used by drivers since the first ride was given, using the app on July 5, 2010, in San Francisco, according to the company’s website. Since then, the app has gone global and its rank of drivers continues to grow. Two years later, it began ice cream delivery services in seven U.S. cities, setting the stage for Uber Eats, which kicked off in 2015 in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, according to its website. The flexibility is proving attractive to users and employees alike. 

“I actually heard about it three or four years ago, three years ago, and 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, told Washington Business Daily. “And just one day I just choose to sign up and I actually like it.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, gig workers are not easy to identify today in typical surveys of earnings and employment. They frequently are distributed across a wide range of occupation groups. According to the BLS, gig workers perform contingent work or are employed under "alternative employment arrangements."  Many workers, like Paz, are attracted to the flexibility gig work offers, and he noted it allows workers to take time off whenever they want by getting out of the app. 

Gig work, according to the Hamilton Project, increased in the wake of the Great Recession by creating job growth during the recovery. In addition to flexibility, the report noted that it also reduced training costs and reduced barriers to entering the workforce. 

"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. "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 gig workers could get additional income for their household or create a completely new source of income, according to the Hamilton Project, which also noted these workers often provide services that offer lower prices, benefitting consumers.