Ng Chee Khern, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Manpower, Singapore (right) and Rafael Diez de Medina, Chief Statistician and Director, Department of Statistics, International Labour Organization (left) at the jointly organised Global Dialogue on Digital Platform Work.
Globally, despite its rapid growth, digital platform work is not fully captured in labour force data, making it difficult to assess its true impact on workers, work arrangements and incomes. This is because of the lack of internationally agreed statistical standards and definitions, compounded by the fact that such work comprises a diverse range of activities from transport and delivery to professional services like design, coding and consulting, and is often sporadic in nature. This can lead to inconsistent measurement in labour force surveys, impeding the ability to fully understand platform workers' socio-economic outcomes. Without better visibility, digital platform arrangements risk being managed with blunt rather than calibrated policies.
Robust and consistent data is therefore crucial to governments' efforts in designing evidence-based policies that safeguard workers' rights and well-being. These could have implication on areas like workplace injury compensation, housing and retirement adequacy, and career mobility initiatives, but also for enabling higher-skilled freelancers and professionals to access global opportunities. While lower-income platform workers remain the current focus, it is equally important to keep watch on higher-skilled segments such as professional freelancers and consultants. A decade ago, Singapore began tracking delivery and transport workers early, ensuring protections were in place when needed. The same forward-looking view should be taken with higher-segment platform work, so policies are ready when this space grows. Beyond national efforts, standardised data also provide countries with a shared evidence base that supports efforts to regulate cross-border platform activity, assess employer obligations, and account for digital services in labour mobility and trade frameworks.
Singapore is among the first globally to conduct annual national surveys on platform work since 2016. From then till 2024, the number of platform workers who preferred such work as their main job grew by an average of 7% a year. Concurrently, there has been a decrease in workers who have faced challenges with such work, from 71% in 2017 to 18% in 2024. Measurement efforts were critical to supporting positive outcomes and introduction of the Platforms Workers Act, which aims to enhance protection and representation for workers. The Act was also shaped through Singapore's unique tripartite approach between unions, employers and the government – alongside partners National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).
At the 21st International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2023, MOM and the ILO produced a working paper which highlighted measurement challenges and called for standardised concepts and methods. This has led to the formation of an expert group on digital platform work, with Singapore co-hosting today's Global Dialogue on Digital Platform Work with the ILO to further drive progress towards common measures that ensure that policies for platform workers are grounded in robust, comparable data.
Strengthening Standards Through International Dialogue and Collaboration
The Global Dialogue on Digital Platform Work will convene diverse stakeholders for cross-border dialogue, knowledge sharing and multilateral collaboration. It will be guided by the following objectives:
- To emphasise the importance of better data and analysis to strengthen protection through legislation for the growing group of platform workers impacted by DPE;
- To support the development of harmonised statistics on DPE which are essential for international comparison and learning and seizing opportunities in the platform economy; and
- To drive global collaboration that advances the future of DPE through dialogue.
Mr Gilbert F. Houngbo, Director-General, ILO said, "Digital platform employment has reshaped the world of work, creating new employment and income opportunities and driving economic efficiency but also raising challenges regarding protection and rights of workers. As digital platforms scale globally, so must our measurements. Now is the time for international statistical standards, so we have comparable data evidence needed to uphold rights and extend social protection – advancing decent work whilst promoting its economic potential. Reliable data is also crucial to inform the ILO's ongoing standard setting on decent work for platform workers. I am pleased that the ILO is partnering with Singapore's Ministry of Manpower to convene this important Global Dialogue, bringing together our tripartite constituents and other stakeholders to close these data gaps."
Through cross-border dialogue, tripartite engagement and multilateral cooperation, the Global Dialogue on Digital Platform Work will lay the groundwork for stronger international measurement standards to ensure platform workers are visible, valued and fairly represented in the future of work. The discussions will serve as a key milestone in the lead-up to the 22nd International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2028, where measurement standards on DPE will be presented.
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