2023
Work in the gig economy is defined as short-term and task-based jobs mediated by the digital platforms. In Indonesia, the presence of an online motorcycle taxi driver platform in 2015 marked the discourse about the gig economy as the future alternative of jobs on the one hand, and as a new form of exploitation of labor on the other hand. This study is the first to define the typology of the gig economy and identify the platforms of the gig economy service providers in Indonesia. Furthermore, this study estimates the size of gig economy workers by using micro data from the National Labor Force Survey (Sakernas) released by the Central Statistics Agency. It was found that there are 0.3 to 1.7% of the Indonesian workforce who participate in the gig economy as their primary jobs. This study also compares the characteristics of gig workers in the transportation sector and in the other service sectors with the overall demographics of workers. It was found that gig workers share a more similar characteristics with the formal workers rather than with the informal workers. Finally, this study maps the distribution of gig workers throughout Indonesia at the city/district level. It can be concluded that the gig economy is an urban phenomenon. Most gig workers in the transportation sector are concentrated in the provincial capital and in Metropolitan Jakarta. Meanwhile, gig workers in other service sectors are more distributed to tier 2 cities in Java.