No. 472 - Working in the gig economy. Evidence from the Italian food delivery industry

We examine the gig economy phenomenon. Specifically, we provide: i) an overview of the current debate on how to regulate this sector in terms of contractual working arrangements; ii) a review of the existing empirical evidence concerning the extent of the phenomenon and its main characteristics, both in Italy and abroad; and iii) a case study on the workers employed in the food delivery industry in Italy.
The evidence we collected shows that, as of today, the gig economy is a rapidly growing phenomenon, although still of a limited size. The workers involved are typically young and highly educated and generally use labour platforms to integrate other sources of income, or as a secondary activity. Amongst the Italian workers in the food delivery industry (totalling about 8,000), for example, 20 per cent have another job and 50 per cent are students.