The European Training Foundation (ETF) is engaged in the international debate about the future of work in developing and transition countries, in particular in the EU Neighbourhood. This strand of work is one of several ETF’s actions analysing the impact of global trends on the human capital: its formation, development and utilisation, originated from the Skills for the Future: Managing transition Conference.
The future of work in the digital era: the platform work?
Globalisation is a common denominator for the current trends we observe. Digitalisation, internet technology, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence are displacing, replacing, reshaping and complementing many jobs. Climate change, demographic shifts and migration flows further contribute to the world’s transformation. The trends driving this transformation are set to continue, but their economic and social impact will vary from country to country, and outcomes will very much depend on what action countries take to seize the opportunities and address the challenges they bring with them.
Digital developments are bringing an increased labour flexibility, replacing ‘jobs’ by ‘tasks’ and influencing employment relationships by reshaping them or creating new ones. Labour on demand is becoming widespread in the so-called ‘platform’, ‘collaborative’ or ‘gig’ economy’. It has different names, but generally it enables hiring services via internet-based platforms. It has a trans-border nature, with offer and demand of labour meeting online and implies a genuine globalisation of work: ‘gig’ jobs (tasks) are accessible for workers (or ‘taskers’) around the world. The trend is also enhanced by overall low market stability and new economic models, which use internet and arise in parallel to traditional sectors, in particular services.
The available evidence shows that the collaborative/platform economy is growing in size in all the countries. It becomes even more important in the transition and developing countries, like the EU Neighbourhood, given its job creation potential on the underperforming markets. The digitalisation increases opportunities and may create new ones for people who face barriers in finding jobs and promote inclusion for youth, women, persons with disabilities and people living in remote areas. The platform economy can also be an alternative for migration.
Platform-driven technological and organisational innovations demonstrate that the current labour market regulations may also need more innovative approaches. If the collaborative economy and platform work are set to grow and become a significant reality, some policy interventions might be needed. A serious challenge in this scenario is the increasing exposure of workers to global competition. New mechanisms ensuring that the international and national rules protect the workers are then needed, at the same time maintaining the flexibility and competitiveness of the platforms.
Platform work in transition and developing countries: how can they respond to new trends shaping the labour market?
Our activity focuses on opportunities and challenges driven by the online and platform work developments and their implications for the regulatory and institutional setting, aiming at quality job creation, inclusiveness, and skills formation and utilisation. The ETF’s contribution to international debate entails building a more thorough and comparable evidence across the countries for the benefit of the institutions and individuals. Labour and skills demand remains the main interest of our research.
To reach this objective we aim at building partnerships for international cooperation with multiple partners: international organisations, national authorities, research community, digital platforms, social partners, civil society and many others. Collaboration within the Skills Lab’s Network of experts is essential.
In 2020 - 2021 the project looked at changing patterns of work triggered by the digitalisation in the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. We investigated the importance platform work in the overall labour market context of the six EaP countries, by analysing the scale and the nature of labour and skills demand, organisational models, profiles of online and platform jobs, profiles of online and platform workers and the career and in-work skills development options.
The study carried out in 2021 - 2022 focussed on how young people in the Western Balkan region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) take the opportunities offered by the increased labour flexibility resulted from fast digitalisation in the Covid 19 era. New economic and employment models match more efficiently labour and skills demand and supply, and provide online employment opportunities which often become an alternative to migration, as they open up new markets and new ways of working and learning.
Our research on the changing patterns of work will now be extended to the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, and to Central Asia (under the DARYA project).
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