Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

Unit F3: Labour market and lifelong learning

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

The European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) pilot data collection carried out in 2022 provided information on Digital Platform Employment (DPE).

The DPE statistics provide information on the type of digital platform work or service, encompassing details on working conditions and arrangements. Together with demographic characteristics, such as sex and age, these statistics allow the description of the profile of digital platform workers.

The results of the pilot data collection are published as experimental statistics. In particular, these statistics show the share of digital platform workers among all people aged 15 to 64 , defined as those who have worked for at least one hour through a digital platform in the last 12 months, broken down by type of DPE activity.

For those who reported to be in DPE for at least 1 hour during the last month, indicators on employment characteristics and working arrangements are also presented by:

• number of hours worked,
• share of income from DPE in total income,
• social insurance coverage,
• type of the assignment of the work, service or task,
• degree of autonomy in accepting work or services, deciding on working hours or price setting.

The pilot data collection included 13 variables: see the annexed methodological note.

The experimental statistics tested:

• the conceptual framework and
• the measurement approach to this new form of employment.

The data was collected on a voluntary basis by 17 countries: 16 EU countries and 1 EFTA country. The  indicators are presented for an aggregate of 17 countries.

The EU-LFS results are produced in accordance with the relevant international classification systems. The main classifications used are NACE Rev. 2 for economic activity, ISCO 08 (from 2011) for occupation, ISCED 2011 for level of education (from 2014) and ISCED-F 2013 for field of education (from 2016). Actual coding in the EU-LFS may deviate to some extent from those general standards; for more details on classifications, levels of aggregation and transition rules, please consult EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - Methodology.

Specific definitions needed for the pilot data collection were agreed in the Task Force on Digital Platform Employment, whose members were representatives of the participating countries. The Task Force was chaired by Eurostat.

As a general rule, the EU-LFS covers all economic sectors.

The concepts and definitions used in the context of the pilot survey on Digital Platform Employment (DPE) are as follows: 

A digital platform worker is a person who has worked for pay or profit in tasks or activities organised through an internet platform or a phone app, for at least one hour in at least one week, during the reference period.

An online platform is a digital online service that facilitates interactions between two or more distinct but interdependent sets of providers and clients who interact through the service via the internet.

Employment refers to the usual criteria used in the European Union Labour Force Survey: at least one hour of work for pay or profit however, the reference period (which is commonly one week) was extended for the DPE data collection to better capture the phenomenon. The first set of questions of the DPE pilot collection, aiming at the identification of digital platforms workers, refer to the last 12 months ending with the reference week of the Labour Force Survey. Then, the following set of questions refers to the last month and the reference week to link with the core LFS. Consequently, the criteria for defining “employment” in the context of DPE is:

• to have worked for pay or profit in tasks or activities organised through an internet platform or a phone app, for at least one hour in at least one week, during the reference period,
• any task or activity that can be considered as “employment” in the LFS, i.e. production of goods or provision of services but also time spent in searching for clients or in setting up the working activity is considered as DPE when the other criteria are fulfilled. It includes in particular, work for pay and profit: (1) for providing taxi or transport services including driving clients, delivery of food for restaurants, or transport or delivery of any kind of goods or similar, (2) for providing actual services to rent out a house, a room or any other accommodation, (3) for selling any good produced or bought to sell it online, and (4) for providing other kinds of services or work, among others: cleaning, handiwork, child or elderly care, teaching, programming and coding, online support or checks for online content, translation, data or text entry, web or graphic design, medical services, creating contents such as videos or texts (to earning money or other benefits),
• the item “creating contents” namely refers to Youtubers and Instagrammers among others if they aim to earn money through the platforms (sharing the revenues of the advertisement) or directly from sponsors (enterprises who advertise their products) or “patrons” (users that pay to have access to the contents),
• for all tasks or activities, as far as the matching between the provider and the client is done through an internet platform or a phone app, the task/activity can be considered as DPE.

All people absent from work for all weeks of the 12 months ending with the reference week, i.e., all persons that have not at all worked for pay or profit through a digital platform during the last 12 months, are classified as not in employment in DPE.

The definitions were agreed by the Eurostat’s Task Force on Digital Platform Employment which is a subgroup of the Labour Market Statistics (LAMAS) expert group. 

Person.

Persons aged 15-64, living in private households.

• 16 EU countries: Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Finland 
• 1 EFTA country: Norway

The pilot survey was conducted in 2022. The questions refer to one year, one month or one week according to the variables of the questionnaire.

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In 2021, the new Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, also called the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation (IESS FR), entered into force. It defines the regular data sets and the ad hoc subjects. This Regulation sets out provisions for the design, characteristics and decision-making process of the survey. Article 14 of the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 specifies that Commission (Eurostat) shall, where necessary, launch feasibility and pilot studies, in which Member States may participate, for example to develop and test new detailed topics for data collection.

The participation of countries in the pilot data collection was on a voluntary basis. 

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Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

EU-LFS microdata as received by Eurostat from the national statistical institutes does not contain any administrative information such as names or addresses that would allow direct identification. Access to this microdata is nevertheless strictly controlled and limited to specified Eurostat staff. After data treatment, records are aggregated for all further use. For further details, please refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 'related metadata').

No advanced schedule of dissemination.

Not available.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see Principle 15 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

No news release.

Statistics Explained article: Employment statistics - digital platform workers - Statistics Explained (europa.eu)

See the information at this website Database.

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For information on the EU-LFS modules, see EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) – modules.

The EU-LFS also disseminates publications on the methodology of the survey. For more information, see: Quality reports and methodological publications.

See Methodological note on the DPE 2022 pilot data collection.

The results of the evaluation of the pilot study were presented and discussed in the Task Force DPE.

Main quality issues:

List of platforms: During the 2022 exercise, six countries used a list of platforms in order to validate the results for identifying the digital platform workers. Most of them reported difficulties to have an up-to-date list. Some countries reported the constant creation and deletion of platforms at national level. Moreover, platforms can change their name or their core activity.

False positives: Three countries reported between 10 % and 20 % of false positives, in particular in IT related tasks.

Most relevant variables: The variable most often reported is about the identification of digital platform workers (DPE01) (6 countries). It is followed by the number of hours worked in the last month (DPE02) (6 countries), the share of platform income in total personal earned income in the last month (DPE03) (4 countries) and the main work (DPE07) (3 countries).

Social insurance: These questions were reported as highly complex for the respondents. The lack of formal contracts increased also the difficulties.

Introductory text: Some countries also highlighted the need to revise the introductory text in order to make the concept of digital platform employment clearer.

The reference period: The respondents had to consider the annual, monthly and weekly basis to report on their digital platform work. This overlap has been underlined and considered confusing by the countries.

Refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 'Related metadata').

Refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 'Related metadata').

The pilot data collection on Digital Platform Employment was undertaken to respond to identified needs from policymakers and international partners.

Article 14 of the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 specifies that Commission (Eurostat) shall, where necessary, launch feasibility and pilot studies, in which Member States may participate, for example to develop and test new detailed topics for data collection.

EU-LFS results are used mainly by DG Employment and a number of other Directorates of the European Commission for measurement and monitoring of policy agendas purposes. Key users include National Statistics Institutes (NSIs), international organisations, news agencies and researchers, which use various aspects of EU-LFS data for international or intra-EU comparisons.

Refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 'Related metadata').

The participation in the project was on a voluntary basis and therefore data is not available for all Member States.

Refer to the ESMS page on 'Employment and unemployment (LFS)' (see link below in section 'Related metadata').

The reliability thresholds for publication as specified in the pilot study quality reports were applied; where those are not available, the limits for the EU-LFS ad hoc subject 2022 were used.

For the sample size per country see the evaluation report at EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) - modules.

For non-sampling indicators per country, see the evaluation report at EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) – modules.

The deadline for data transmissions to Eurostat was 31 March 2023.

All countries delivered data on time. Initial validation of the data sets was finished in Spring 2023, with the subsequent revision round finishing in Summer 2023.

Not applicable.

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Published estimates stemming from the EU-LFS are considered fully internally coherent. 

The general Eurostat revision policy applies to this domain.

For the pilot studies that are once off ad hoc data collection revisions are unlikely.

The source of the data is a pilot study conducted as part of the EU-LFS.
The EU-LFS is a rotating random sample survey of persons in private households.
The Regulation (EU) 2019/1700, also called the Integrated European Social Statistics Framework Regulation (IESS FR), and its Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2240 for the labour force domain provide a precise description of the survey content (module and submodules of the questionnaire).

The main characteristics of the new EU-LFS methodology based on the revised Regulation are
available in the article: EU labour force survey - methodology

Ad hoc pilot conducted in 2022. The ad hoc subject of DPE is planned for the 2026 LFS.

The data is acquired by interviewing the sampled individuals directly. For the sample design and rotation patterns applied in each country, please consult the EU-LFS (Statistics Explained) webpage.

Prior to the dissemination of national data, EU-LFS results are validated by the Member States and checked for plausibility by Eurostat.

Aggregate for all 17 countries participating in the pilot data collection was compiled.

Not applicable.