What do we know about people who are employed online?
"Online labour platforms" are a way for people to take on short-term work that is carried out completely online, and can be done from anywhere in the world. This is a fairly new idea, so social science researchers want to find out more about what kinds of jobs people are doing online, what their working conditions are like and how fairly they are being paid. The Oxford Internet Institute is investigating how changes in the way employment works have affected people's lives.
The Oxford Internet Institute has launched the iLabour Project to investigate how online labour platforms are shaping people's working lives
In the video below, lead researcher Professor Vili Lehdonvirta explains the aims of the research:
Some interesting findings are already available. For example, in the map below, you can see what the most common types of work are for online workers around the world:
Otto Kässi, Vili Lehdonvirta, Online labour index: Measuring the online gig economy for policy and research, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 137, 2018,
Pages 241-248. [open access version]
You can view interactive versions of this and other maps and charts, and read blog posts and publications, at the Online Labour Index website.