The expansion of digitally mediated labor: Platform-based economy, technology-driven shifts in employment, and the novel modes of service work

Abstract

Recent empirical research (e.g. de Reuver, Sørensen, and Basole, 2018; Drahokoupil and Jepsen, 2017; Frenken, 2017; Körfer and Röthig, 2017) shows that effective platforms have rearranged industries that had already built upon some type of self-employment. Using data from JPMorgan Chase Institute, U.S. Labor Department, and The Wall Street Journal, I performed analyses and made estimates regarding cumulative percent of adults who have ever participated in the online platform economy, percent of total income coming from online platforms in active months, share of active participants employed in a non-platform job and the official unemployment rate, year-over-year growth in total earnings in the online platform economy each month, and the rise of app-based companies.