Crowdwork and the Gig Economy

Summary

The emergence of the gig or platform economy is one of the most important new transformations in the world of work. An important component of the platform economy is digital labour platforms which includes both web-based platforms, where work is outsourced through an open call to a geographically dispersed crowd (“crowdwork”), and location-based applications (apps) which allocate work to individuals in a specific geographical area, typically to perform local, service-oriented tasks such as driving, running errands or cleaning houses.

Since 2015, the ILO has been studying digital labour platforms with a view to understanding the implications of this new form of work organization on workers and employment in general.