The global gig economy: towards a planetary labour market?

The relative lack of fixed organisational infrastructure needed for the online outsourcing sector means that it can be characterised by a broad geographic spread. Unlike traditional forms of employment, companies that outsource digital work, and platforms that mediate those relationships, tend to avoid any formal employment of workers and don’t need to share proximity to workers. Jobs are instead listed on digital platforms that allow workers to bid for them. These jobs might take anything from minutes (e.g. click work or image tagging) to months (large writing tasks or web design) to complete. Because of the rapid rise of digital work around the world, we ask in this chapter whether we are seeing the emergence of a ‘planetary labour market’ in digital work. To answer this question, we outline the scalar and spatial changes that have been occurring in labour markets, review their implications for the balance of power between labour and capital, and advance some possible responses to ensure that we do not get trapped in a global race to the bottom in which there are constant downward pressures on wages and working conditions.