Digital Platform Employment: 2022
- Almost 5 per cent of all persons between 15 and 64 years carried out platform work.
- Almost half of the gig workers were between 35 and 54 years.
- The share of males (64.2 per cent) who performed digital platform work was almost double the share of females (35.8 per cent).
- The more common internet platforms for gig work were taxi services, renting of accommodation and food delivery services.
Introduction
The data provided in this news release is extracted from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) pilot data collection carried out during 2022 and partly financed through EU grants. The LFS is a household-based survey and is used as a monitoring tool across the European Union for assessing progress made in various spheres of labour market and social statistics.
The framework regulation on Integrated European Social Statistics (Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council) gives, under Article 14, the opportunity to the European Commission (Eurostat) to launch pilot studies in order to improve the data sets and social indicators. Given that the platform economy has rapidly expanded in size, this pilot data collection aimed to collect comparable information on platform workers across the EU. Its main objective was to estimate the total number of persons employed in digital platform work and to collect information on their working conditions.
Results
The target population for this module was all persons aged between 15 and 64 years living in private households. LFS results showed that almost 5 per cent of all persons between 15 and 64 years carried out digital platform work or services in the preceding 12 months (Chart 1). Digital platform workers comprise persons who have worked for pay or profit in tasks or activities organised through an Internet Platform or through an application for phones and tablets.
No Data Found
Tasks or activities organised through a digital platform constitute work arrangements involving three separate agents: the provider, the client and the platform or app. The provider refers to the digital platform employed person while the client can either be an individual or a legal person. The platform or app is a digital online service that facilitates interactions between two or more distinct but interdependent sets of providers and clients. These interdependent providers and clients interact through the service via the internet.
In 2022, the share of males who performed digital platform work in the preceding 12 months was almost double the share of females (64.2 per cent and 35.8 per cent respectively). In addition, the larger share of persons who carried out gig-related work in the preceding year had a post-secondary level of education (42.5 per cent). A further 31.1 per cent had a tertiary level of education while 26.4 per cent had a secondary level of education or less (Table 1).
Gig work was prevalent among persons between 35 and 54 years. In fact, 47.0 per cent of all persons who performed such work were within this age bracket. The share dropped significantly for persons in the older age group where only one in every 10 persons who performed gig work in the preceding 12 months was between 55 and 64 years (Chart 2).
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Figures indicated that the most common internet platform in the country was taxi services, garnering almost 40 per cent of all persons conducting digital platform employment in 2022. Renting out accommodation (32.3 per cent) and transport services for the delivery of food or other goods (31.9 per cent) were the second and third most common platforms (Chart 3). One out of every five persons performing digital platform work sold goods over the internet and 14.8 per cent created contents such as videos or texts for pay or profit through an Internet platform or app.
Chart 3. Top 3 internet platforms
Taxi Services
Rental of accommodation
Food delivery
39.5%
32.3%
31.9%
This pilot study aimed to also measure the intensity of platform work or services, in terms of working hours. LFS estimates indicate that one in every five gig workers have a work intensity with 10 hours or more in the preceding month. A further 19.9 per cent have a work intensity of 9 hours or less whereas the majority of gig workers did not work at all during the preceding month (Chart 4).
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1. The data provided in this news release is extracted from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) pilot data collection carried out during 2022 and partly financed through EU grants. The framework regulation on Integrated European Social Statistics (Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council) gives under Article 14 the opportunity to the European Commission (Eurostat) to launch pilot studies in order to improve the data sets and social indicators.
2. During 2022, the ad hoc module was carried out on a sample of persons taking part in the LFS survey for the second and third time.
3. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is carried out on an ongoing basis using a quarterly gross sample of 3,200 private households. The objective is to have a continuous assessment of labour market trends given that the reference weeks are evenly spread throughout the 13 weeks of the quarter. One-fourth of the sample is made up of households who have been selected to participate in the LFS for the first time. Three-fourths of the quarterly sample is made up of households who were selected to participate in the survey in previous instances, either one quarter before, or one year before, or one year and a quarter before (2-(2)-2). Unless otherwise indicated, figures provided in this release refer to persons aged 15 and over and living in private households during the reference period. All criteria used for this survey match international methodologies used by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
4. The LFS is designed to satisfy the concepts and definitions as outlined by Eurostat. This allows the comparability of results with other EU member states and countries following ILO definitions of employment and unemployment. Occupations are classified according to the ISCO-08 classification (International Standard Classification of Occupations) whereas the economic activity is classified according to NACE Rev. 2 (Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques dans les Communautés Européennes). Education attainment is classified according to ISCED 2011.
5. Definitions:
● Digital platform employment: comprises persons who worked for pay or profit in tasks or activities organised through an Internet platform or a app for phones and tablets, for at least one hour during the reference period. Tasks or activities organised through a digital platform constitute work arrangements involving three separate agents:
– the provider: the digital platform employed person
– the client: which can be an individual or a legal person
– the Platform or App: a digital online service that facilitates interactions between two or more distinct but interdependent sets of providers and clients who interact through the service via the internet.
● Educational Attainment:
– secondary or less level of education: comprising persons with no schooling, primary education, schools for children with special needs and persons who attained a secondary level education and have less than 2 ordinary level qualifications or equivalent. In the context of the ISCED classification, ‘low’ includes ISCED 0 to 2.
– post-secondary level of education: comprising persons with a secondary level education and having 2 ordinary level qualifications or equivalent or more, persons with a post-secondary level attainment who have at least obtained 1 intermediate or advanced level qualification or equivalent. In the context of the ISCED classification, ‘medium’ refers to ISCED 3 and 4.
– tertiary level of education: comprising persons with a tertiary level education and with qualifications ranging from diploma to doctorate level. In the context of the ISCED classification, ‘high’ refers to ISCED 5 to 8.
● Work intensity: refers to the number of working hours on the platform work or services carried out in the last calendar month. This also includes the time spent in searching for clients and in organising the schedule, etc.
6. Key
: Unreliable – less than 20 sample observations.
U Under represented – between 20 and 49 sample observations.
7. Percentage totals may not add up due to rounding.
8. Absolute changes between one survey estimate and another must be treated with caution since minor changes (i.e. less than 2,500 persons) might be the result of sampling error.
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