A near three-year protracted COVID-19 pandemic since the 2019 first outbreak in Wuhan, China, has hugely impacted all the basic economic units: the household, the firm and the government. Over the two-year period from 2 January 2020 to 15 January 2022, the following five industries: airlines; hotels, restaurants and leisure; energy equipment and services; automobiles, and specialty retail were most affected by lockdowns and social distancing intended to curtail the spread of COVID-19 (S&P Global Market Intelligence, 2022). Many of these industries are small businesses requiring a longer period to recover and return to their pre-pandemic state. One of these businesses' immediate measures was retrenching a certain percentage of employees to reduce operational costs. For the retrenched employees who need to find other sources of income to survive, the gig economy, which had gained attention after the global financial crisis in 2008, is an attractive alternative for them to earn a living. This article sheds light on the growth drivers of gig workforce after the COVID-19 pandemic and how advantageous this new economic trend is to the Islamic finance industry.