What benefits do employers think the gig economy offers?

Perhaps the least controversial benefit that employers perceive in the gig economy is its ability to help companies respond to short-term, seasonal needs. Forty-two percent of employers cited that reason.

However, 56 percent say that they might draw upon gig workers to access a capability or expertise that is not available within their full-time workforce. Roughly the same percentage –– 55 percent –– say that gig workers might help them to control labor costs. These responses will no doubt sound the alarms for worker rights advocates who worry that businesses outsourcing work to the gig economy will come at the expense of workers' incomes, job security and benefits.

Finally, 50 percent of employers say that contracting out to gig workers may help to "overcome resistance to change" within the organization.

But there are plenty of challenges tied up with relying on gig workers. More than half of employers report having no onboarding process for gig workers, while 31 percent report using a manual onboarding process for workers who are otherwise tied into the organization in a much different way than traditional employees. Similarly, 37 percent report a "fragmented governance model" for managing the gig workers.

So how about the gig workers themselves? There has been plenty of debate about whether services such as Uber and Lyft are actually providing a leg up for the people they rely on, with some arguing that it offers an easy, flexible way to make money for millions who might otherwise be constrained by parenting duties, among other things. Others worry that the gig economy will undercut the entire notion of job security that comes from traditional employment.

Of the roughly 1,000 gig workers surveyed by EY, 73 percent generally feel positive about their situation. But 20 percent of respondents say that they are pursuing a gig because they can't find a better full-time job.