The gig is up: America’s booming economy is built on hollow promises | Robert Reich

Contract workers prop up big earners but under Trump's anti-labor administration are ruthlessly exploited themselves

Uber just filed its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company. Although it lost $1bn, investors may still do well because the losses appear to be declining.

Related: The Uber drivers forced to sleep in parking lots to make a decent living

The standard economic measures - unemployment and income - look better than Americans feel

California is countering Trump on this, as on other issues

Related: Gig economy: California bill granting employee status passes assembly

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. He is also a columnist for Guardian US