For several years, the “Uberization” of the world of work has been underway. Online platforms offer jobs as drivers and delivery people to employees transformed into “entrepreneurs” in spite of themselves. Work paid by the task also exists online: design, web and IT development, writing, proofreading, data analysis and repetitive tasks intended to power artificial intelligence. According to a new study by the World Bank, this is a growing sector.
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Up to 400 million people would be affected by this new type of work, often part-time. These online tasks now represent more than 10% of the global job market, much more than a few years ago.
Namita Datta directed the writing of this report for the World Bank. “ Businesses of all sizes post tasks to be completed on an online platform and an algorithm matches each task with a worker registered on that platform. The work is done online, as is the payment », she defines with RFI. ” Then, we can distinguish two types of work: “micro-tasks” that only take a handful of seconds to accomplish – for example identifying a car in an image and checking a box. It’s very fast, anyone with a phone can do it, but the pay you get is also very low “. And then there is a second category which is closer to freelance work and which requires real skills: IT work, web development, translation, data analysis, etc.
Strong growth in sub-Saharan Africa
The sector is growing in developing countries, particularly since the pandemic. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world where this growth is strongest: +130% in 5 years. The World Bank study focused particularly on three African countries that are particularly advanced: Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. ” We weren’t so surprised to see how much the sector was growing in this region », Specifies Namita Datta. ” What we didn’t suspect, however, is how local the demand is. It’s true that 70% of demand still comes from Western countries, the United States or Europe. But many platforms also work at the local level “.
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It must be said that the proposal is attractive: it promises access to employment for people who are often far from it, particularly women, additional income for students and greater flexibility in time management. , without travel constraints… provided you have an internet connection. ” I think of young African women who do not always have access to interesting job offers in the towns or villages where they live. It also allows access to income in conflict zones », Specifies Namita Datta. ” But it is also an opportunity for small businesses in developing countries, those that have just been created: these platforms give them access to skills and workers that they would not find in their immediate environment. »
Bad pay, no social protection
But be careful, warns the World Bank, behind the promise of transforming workers into entrepreneurs there are also poorly paid jobs, without social protection or income guarantees, tasks entrusted by platforms based abroad which escape labor law. work of the countries where they operate. ” As there is no direct employer/employee relationship, most workers do not have health insurance, do not contribute to their retirement, do not have sick leave if they fall ill. »
The authors of the report therefore call on governments to look into the subject. ” But we cannot consider regulation in the same way in developed countries, in the United States, in Europe, and in developing countries. », insists Namita Datta. ” This new economy is an opportunity and a chance that must not be killed by regulating it too hard and too quickly. Regulators, politicians, the private sector, NGOs, scientists: we must all work collectively to find new and suitable ways of operating. In the meantime, governments must work to provide this inherently dispersed workforce with an avenue to express concerns, assert demands or denounce unfair practices. »
This new economy is also already shaping up to be one of the most permeable to the growing influence of artificial intelligence. Here too, it is both a risk and an opportunity. On the one hand, the giants of the sector are already sources of jobs as they need data to feed their AI. On the other hand, artificial intelligence will soon already be able to accomplish some of the tasks that today support these new digital proletarians. ” But they will also be the best armed and the best prepared to adapt “, wants to believe Namita Datta.
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