Survey of ~5,000 gig workers across 15 countries: over 60% say they are financially satisfied but most want out of the job within a year
Rest of World
Context & Ripple Effects
Rest of World's 15-country survey of roughly 5,000 gig workers lands on a paradox that later country-level studies keep confirming: money is fine, the job is not a destination. Over 60% report financial satisfaction, yet most intend to quit within a year.
The follow-on coverage sharpens why. In India, a survey of ~4,000 workers on Swiggy, Zomato, Uber and Amazon found 42% with flat incomes, 47% without insurance, and 51% unable to save — while Japan's 14K delivery-driver survey showed 63% satisfied and 82% willing to stay 'for a while' or longer. Satisfaction and retention clearly diverge by market, and this global dataset is the baseline that split.
First-order effects
Platforms named in the follow-up coverage — Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Amazon — face structurally high churn: if most gig workers plan exits within a year, recruiting and onboarding becomes a permanent operating cost rather than a growth expense.
Workers themselves treat gig income as a bridge, not a career: the majority's one-year exit intent means earnings are being optimized short-term (hours, surge timing) rather than through skill-building or tenure-based advancement.
Second-order effects
Retention economics start differing sharply by market: Japan's pattern of drivers staying indefinitely versus the global majority planning exits suggests platforms will tailor pay structures and benefits per country — insurance and savings gaps like India's 47%/51% figures become the levers that decide who stays.
Labor-market intermediaries gain: with most workers planning transitions out, staffing firms, upskilling providers and formal employers can position gig platforms as talent pipelines, competing to capture workers mid-bridge.
Third-order effects
If churn stays this high, the political case for portable benefits and minimum earnings standards strengthens — regulators can argue that platforms whose workforce plans to leave anyway bear little cost from rules that raise per-task protections.
The industry may bifurcate into two models: markets like Japan where gig work functions as durable supplementary employment, and markets where it is explicitly transitional — forcing platforms to decide which workforce they are designing for.
The trend: Global gig work is settling into a 'satisfied but temporary' equilibrium — adequate pay masking structural churn that splits markets between transitional and durable gig labor.
The package includes a dive into the small coterie of investors that are behind the drive to export the gig economy to every nation on earth, delving into how they describe the business opportunity gig work represents. https://restofworld.org/... 5/
We surveyed ~5,000 gig workers in 15 countries and conducted dozens of in-person interviews. Despite a huge difference between the countries and the nature of work, we kept hearing similar stories: low pay, job insecurity, and fears about safety https://restofworld.org/...
A delivery biker in Mumbai saw his recent crash as a warning sign. “But I have two months of bills to pay my landlord... I don't have money to actually live... So you know, I have no choice, man. Fear is not an option.” What it's like to be a gig worker https://restofworld.org/..…
This morning @restofworld published its most ambitious project to date: an expansive look at how gig labor is upending work, and societies, around the world: Gig workers are uncertain, scared, and barely scraping by https://restofworld.org/... via @restofworld
But what I found most fascinating was the introductory article, “How the gig workers are fighting back,” detailing how gig workers around the world are making common cause with one another. https://restofworld.org/... 14/
This common experience of the often dangerous nature of gig work has done one remarkable thing: it's created a genuine, global movement that is taking the fight to the tech companies. Read @peterguest's feature on the global revolt against gig work https://restofworld.org/...
While companies have invested billions in their tech and in subsidies to bring users onto their platforms, it's actually their riders and drivers who are paying to scale them on the street — and carrying a lot of the risk if demand doesn't match supply. https://restofworld.org/..…
In the UK, Uber drivers are on strike today. In India, gig workers are taking their grievances to the Supreme Court. Worldwide, platform workers are organising, standing up to “the giants” and demanding fair pay and conditions. https://restofworld.org/...
But it's not all hopeless. Gig workers are organising, locally and internationally. They're gathering online, arranging global strikes and swapping experiences, helping each other to challenge the power of the platforms on the streets and in the courts. https://restofworld.org/..…
Over the past few months, @PeterGuest and I @restofworld surveyed nearly 5,000 gig workers across 15 countries in a partnership with @premisedata to answer: Is gig work a good job for workers in the rest of world? https://restofworld.org/...
A team of reporters, data scientists, and designers led by @PeterGuest has been working on this for months. In particular, this index created by @zhoyoyo will be invaluable to anyone studying the subject, from a survey of 5,000 gig workers: https://restofworld.org/...
We've all chatted with our Careem driver & pizza delivery guy about their work life & heard horror stories as well as silver linings of empowered financial independence. Here's an enlightening survey on what it's like to be a gig worker. 5000 people across 15 countries. https://t…
To create an index of job quality we scored gig work in each country across the three dimensions: financial situations, their emotional states, and their prospects https://restofworld.org/... https://twitter.com/...
THE GIG WORKER INDEX @restofworld surveyed ~5,000 gig workers in 15 countries to compare experiences of platform work worldwide. If you're an entrepreneur, researcher or anyone interested in gig work in the global south, you wouldn't want to miss this👇 https://restofworld.org/...
One particularly alarming statistic: On an hourly basis, 42% of the workers we surveyed earned less than the local minimum wage https://restofworld.org/...
“The Global Gig Workers” is a new, important report on the gig economy around the world, published by @restofworld. It's grounded in a survey of 4,500 gig workers in 15 countries, backstopped by seven profiles of workers in seven countries. https://restofworld.org/... 4/
If gig work is the future of labor, is it a future we want? We surveyed 4,900 gig workers across 15 countries. Again and again, we heard stories of low pay, job insecurity, and worries about safety https://restofworld.org/...
“Faced with fragility and uncertainty, gig workers are connecting across borders to challenge platforms' power and policies.” https://restofworld.org/...
NYC is set to pass a series of laws designed to improve working conditions for gig workers https://www.nytimes.com/... If you think the situation is bad there, you should see what it's like in India, which scored at the bottom of our gig workers index https://restofworld.org/... …
In a first, gig workers in India have approached the judiciary seeking social security & employment benifits, which the platforms have denied for long @restofworld surveyed 5000 gig workers from across the world to understand the precarity of their work https://restofworld.org/..…
While the experience of gig work takes on features of the societies it operates in, it's also universal. @restofworld found that platform workers, whether they're based in New York or Nigeria, are all struggling with anxiety, low wages, and high costs. https://restofworld.org/...…
“Women often can't use their earnings as a springboard to financial inclusion...banks ask for proof-of-income statements and employment letters, which gig workers...are often unable to provide.” Whole project is great work. Here's the piece on women: https://restofworld.org/... h…
Gonna go out on a limb and say that a future of zero labor protections & management by algorithm, with constant pressure to optimize performance + little heed to the physical, mental and environmental sustainability of this work is probably not a future we want. https://twitter.c…