Digital Jobs in the EU and Self-Employment in Developing Countries

Dr Brendan Burchell defines digital jobs, shows their prevalence in Europe and then investigates their quality highlighting that in most aspects digital jobs tended to be better quality apart from having higher levels of work intensity. Burchell goes on to investigate what sort of jobs young self-employed people are doing in developing countries, what future they have and whether it should be understood as entrepreneurship. Arguing that self-employment is segmented and tends to be worse quality than employment. In developing countries real entrepreneurship is breaking out of self-employment and getting into salaried employment.

This talk was recorded at the Oxford University Digital Transformations of Work Conference as part of Green Templeton College’s Future of Work Programme. This event brought together leading experts on work, employment and labour markets to discuss how the internet and digital platforms are transforming the world of work. It took place at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, on 10 March 2016.