Understanding the Digital Platform Workforce in the US: Evidence from the Entrepreneurship in the Population Survey

The rise of digital platform technologies raised concerns, given their potential to fundamentally alter labor market arrangements by increasing the share of workers employed in the “gig economy.” This paper uses data from a new nationally representative survey, the Entrepreneurship in the Population Survey, to examine these work arrangements, focusing on work coordinated through a digital platform. We estimate that roughly 1.6 percent of adults performed digital platform work as a primary job during the past week, and 4.4 percent performed digital platform work at some point over the past 6 months. In addition to understanding differences in the timing of platform work, we also estimate differences by type of platform, document the demographic characteristics of these workers, and explore the motivations leading workers to digital platform work.