Platform employment specifics in Russia: the data of workers’ online profiles indicate

The article considers platform employment issues. The aim of our research is to systematize and make an overview of modern knowledge about the current state and structure of platform employment in Russia, assess the position and status of platform workers using previously published research findings, new official statistics data, as well as the results of own empirical research of the data provided by the digital platform Profi.ru for Moscow and the Moscow Region as of 2023. To achieve the goal, we address the following tasks: systematization of available estimates of the platform labor market in Russia; analysis of the first statistical data of Rosstat on platform employment and the formation of a profile of a Russian employed in this segment; approbation of approaches to studying employment on digital platforms by downloading open data on performers (platform workers) directly from the websites of digital platforms in order to enriching statistical data and gain new knowledge about platform employment specifics. We conclude that the structure of platform employment is institutionalized in social practices and is gradually approaching the structure of general employment in terms of basic socio-demographic characteristics, but still has its own specifics. In particular, the average age of platform workers is still lower than that of the employed population as a whole; platform workers are mostly men and urban residents. At the same time, platforms, especially the segment of physical services (provided locally), are characterized by the predominance of groups that are traditionally considered vulnerable in the labor market: women aged 20-29 and 30-39 with minor children, students and youth without work experience, migrants, persons without professional education. The data obtained from the website Profi.ru indicate that such workers are employed mainly in the informal sector. More than 10% of the profiles presented on the platform under consideration are “false”, that is, they belong to organizations, teams or groups of performers (formal or informal), rather than individuals.