Measuring Platform Employment: Global Approaches and Their Adaptation for the CIS Countries

Abstract

The article focuses on measuring platform employment – labour activity performed for pay or profit, mediated through digital platforms. In recent years, this form of employment has become widespread in many countries, including the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The study aims to develop recommendations for recording (identification and characterization) of workers engaged in labor activities mediated by digital platforms to ensure harmonized measurement of platform employment across the CIS region
The article reviews international guidelines (a joint effort by the OECD, ILO, and EU) on the recording of platform workers and presents findings on measuring this employment form in the CIS countries based on open-source data and findings of a July 2024 survey of CIS statistical agencies. The survey revealed that platform employment is measured within official statistics in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia; however, each country employs distinct methodologies and differing limitations, precluding cross-country data comparability.
To ensure a comprehensive approach to measuring platform employment and enable cross-country comparisons of its scale and characteristics, the study provides recommendations for recording platform workers, taking into account the specifics of this employment category and regional context. The authors propose that CIS national statistical offices implement international definitions and classifications, conduct annual assessments of the phenomenon on the basis of the questions developed for the Labour Force Surveys (LFS), and gather more detailed data every five years on the basis of the special module on the platform employment to the LFS. The analysis is proposed to be carried out on the basis of a system of indicators, which includes indicators of platform employment of varying scope.