“WORKING WITHOUT BORDERS: THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF ONLINE GIG WORK”

“WORKING WITHOUT BORDERS: THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF ONLINE GIG WORK”

09-09-2023

Key Points

  • Independent contractors or freelancers that work on a project-by-project basis for a variety of clients are known as gig workers.
  • Two types of platform-based gig jobs i.e.
  • Location-based gig jobs in which digital platforms allocate work that is tangible like delivery, domestic care, etc.
  • Online gig jobs include tasks like image tagging, data entry, etc.
  • Key findings:
  • About 4.4 to 12.5 percent of the worldwide workforce is made up of online gig workers.
  • The majority of internet venues for gig labor are regional or local, which only draws 29% of all visitors.
  • Women participate more in online gig employment than in the overall labor market globally.
  • Online gig work's potential to increase female labor force participation hasn't been completely realized, though.
  • Developing countries are seeing a greater increase in demand for online gig workers than are industrialized countries.
  • Significance of Online gig work: provides possibilities for young people and low-skilled employees, encourages the development of digital skills, improves prospects for employment, etc. to advance inclusion.
  • Challenges associated with Online gig work: data privacy and security, Local platform growth is restricted by a lack of continuous network, which also leads to inadequate labor protection, etc.
  • Recommendations:
  • Supply-side: Build digital skills, promote labor market inclusion, enhance social protection coverage.
  • Demand-side: Use e-Governance reforms to encourage the expansion of the local private sector ecosystem and generate demand.
  • Digital platform: Strengthening capacity to gather systematic data from platforms, crowd-rating, and third-party accreditation.

Q. Out of the four options in the following, only one word best describes the descriptive sentence. Decide on the one that best conveys the idea.

"A system based on the free market where organizations frequently use independent contractors for short-term engagements and temporary positions are common."

  1. Agrarian economy
  2. Gig economy
  3. Mixed economy
  4. None of these

Answer: 2

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