CESS 2018

Processes of digitalisation, outsourcing and off-shoring have changed the way work and working lives are organised. The growth of the digital and platform economy gave rise to new forms of work, often referred to as crowd-platform-, or gig-work. The measurement of these new and non-standard forms of work poses major challenges for statistics’ producers and users. There is a lack of agreed names and shared definitions that would be fully operational, and there is a growing fragmentation of working lives that escape the existing definitions of work and employment. There are also technical challenges for data collection as the target population is relatively small, heterogenous and fragmented. Nevertheless, the topic is of great policy importance and there is a pressing need for official statistics that measure the extent and trends in non-standard forms of work. The panel will discuss and formulate users’ opinions on their needs and approaches to the topic, discuss existing findings and new methodologies.