The study of the regional specifics of platform employment and the main areas of freelance services is driven by the transformation of the labor market both in Russia and globally: specifically, the digitalization of the economy and the overall virtualization of society, the proliferation of non-standard forms of employment, the development of platform employment, and the growth in the number of platform workers. The subject of this study was the profiles of remote workers on the job search and recruitment platforms Profi.ru and Freelance.habr.com. The aim of the study is to identify the structure and specifics of freelance service distribution on the Profi.ru and Freelance.habr.com. The empirical basis for this article is freelancer profiles obtained by crawling profi.ru and freelance.habr.com platforms. This study is the first to identify and describe the characteristics of the socio-demographic structure, territorial distribution and sectoral focus of specialists offering platform labour services in Russia. The study's results demonstrated that the largest share of remote workers represented on the Profi.ru and Habr.Freelance platforms are concentrated in the fields of programming, copywriting, and design. The distribution of freelancers across regions is uneven, with the highest proportion found in the Central and Northwestern Federal Districts. The results of the study capture the regional specifics and main supply areas of freelance services, and highlight the need for measures to support balanced remote platform employment development in Russia.
The study of the regional specifics of platform employment and the main areas of freelance services is driven by the transformation of the labor market both in Russia and globally: specifically, the digitalization of the economy and the overall virtualization of society, the proliferation of non-standard forms of employment, the development of platform employment, and the growth in the number of platform workers. The subject of this study was the profiles of remote workers on the job search and recruitment platforms Profi.ru and Freelance.habr.com. The aim of the study is to identify the structure and specifics of freelance service distribution on the Profi.ru and Freelance.habr.com. The empirical basis for this article is freelancer profiles obtained by crawling profi.ru and freelance.habr.com platforms. This study is the first to identify and describe the characteristics of the socio-demographic structure, territorial distribution and sectoral focus of specialists offering platform labour services in Russia. The study's results demonstrated that the largest share of remote workers represented on the Profi.ru and Habr.Freelance platforms are concentrated in the fields of programming, copywriting, and design. The distribution of freelancers across regions is uneven, with the highest proportion found in the Central and Northwestern Federal Districts. The results of the study capture the regional specifics and main supply areas of freelance services, and highlight the need for measures to support balanced remote platform employment development in Russia.
This article was written with support from the Russian Science Foundation Grant № 23-18-00775 “Informal Employment in the Regions of Russia: Social Risks and Opportunities”