HSE Experts Provide Insights into Platform Employment in Russia
At least 7.4 million Russians use digital platforms to find jobs or part-time work. Through websites and applications, they work as couriers, tutors, and drivers providing passenger and freight transportation services. While young people remain the most active participants in platform employment, this form of work is also becoming increasingly common among other age groups. These findings were presented by HSE experts at the seminar ‘Platform Employment in Russia: Dynamics, Internal Heterogeneity, and Prospects for Social Guarantees.’
More people are working through digital platforms, and experts worldwide are seeking to assess the scale of this phenomenon. ‘On one hand, platform employment is not particularly difficult to measure, and one of the standard approaches is to use population surveys. Researchers also rely on data from platforms and big data analytics.
On the other hand, estimates vary significantly. For example, in 2023, estimates of platform-based employment by the World Bank and the ILO ranged widely from 154 million to 435 million people, depending on the data source used,’ said Oksana Sinyavskaya, Deputy Director of the HSE Institute for Social Policy.
Oksana Sinyavskaya
In Russia, too, the number of people seeking customers or fulfilling orders through websites and applications such as Yandex.Taxi, Avito, and Profi.ru is growing, while experts are working to assess the scale of this phenomenon. In particular, Rosstat provides estimates of platform employment by asking respondents, as part of its Labour Force Surveys (LFS), whether they have used specific websites or applications to find customers or fulfill orders. HSE University has conducted dedicated sample surveys on platform-based employment (three waves were carried out in April 2022, 2024, and 2026). In addition, questions on platform-based activities are included in the regular survey programme of HSE University’s Economic Behaviour of Households in Russia project (EBHR), says Sinyavskaya. In these latter surveys, questions about platform-based work are addressed to self-employed Russians and to entrepreneurs who operate businesses with hired employees.
In 2025–2026, estimates of the share of people whose primary employment was platform-based varied depending on the source, ranging from 1.43% (according to the LFS) to 3% (according to the EBHR surveys conducted in 2026), the expert notes. ‘Combining the estimates, we arrived at figures ranging from 1.5 to 3.1 million people in Russia aged 18–72 whose primary employment is platform-based. If we take into account primary, additional, and occasional platform employment, the estimates are much higher, ranging from 7.4 to 21.2 million people in total,’ says Sinyavskaya. Occasional part-time work is the main factor driving the spread of this form of employment. According to dedicated survey data, the total gross income generated by people engaged in platform-based employment in 2026 through their primary and additional work is estimated at 1.69 trillion roubles, including 1.12 trillion roubles from primary employment and 0.57 trillion roubles from additional work.
Svetlana Biryukova
Svetlana Biryukova, Chief Research Fellow at the HSE Institute for Social Policy, presented a socio-demographic profile of people engaged in platform-based employment. Men are more likely than women to participate in this type of work. According to a dedicated survey conducted by HSE University in 2026, 18.1% of men and 14.8% of women had experience with platform employment in the form of occasional part-time work. Regular part-time platform work alongside a primary job was reported by 2.4% of men and 1.6% of women. At the same time, platform-based employment served as the primary job for only 2.2% of women and 1.7% of men. ‘For women, platforms become their main and, perhaps, only source of employment significantly more often than for men,’ Biryukova notes. ‘Socially vulnerable groups are also more likely to turn to platform employment. These include people caring for young children, elderly or disabled family members, as well as those who need to work remotely due to personal circumstances. Platforms allow them to earn income by taking on temporary jobs,’ the expert explains.
Younger Russians are the most actively involved in platform employment, Biryukova notes. However, in recent years, the largest growth in the number of platform workers has been observed among people in the middle and older working-age groups. Thus, between 2022 and 2026, the share of platform workers aged 35–44 increased from 20.4% to 26%, while the share of those aged 25–34 declined from 24.2% to 20.5%. The share of respondents aged 18–24 rose from 14.5% in 2022 to 18.3% in 2024, before falling to 12.2% in 2026.
The highest levels of involvement in platform employment have been recorded in cities with populations of 100,000–500,000 residents and in cities with one million or more inhabitants. Among Russians with any experience of platform employment, the most common areas of activity are passenger and freight transportation and courier delivery, accounting for 22.5% in total. Compared with 2024, the share of this sector has increased significantly: at that time, it accounted for only 13–14% of all people engaged in platform work, Biryukova emphasises. Among Russians for whom platform-based employment is their primary job, the majority are concentrated in three professional areas: tutoring and teaching (23.8%), information technology (22%), and passenger and freight transportation (20.7%). These three leading areas of activity have remained unchanged since 2024, while the concentration of platform workers in these fields has increased.
Working through platforms is often perceived as a temporary option, and many people are attracted to this form of employment because of its flexibility—the ability to work from home and create a schedule that suits their needs, Biryukova says. ‘Among all respondents with experience in platform employment, 38% view platforms as a way to find a source of income when other opportunities are unavailable: 17.2% work through online platforms because they cannot currently find any other job, while another 20.8% have had such experience in the past,’ she notes.
At the same time, the share of platform workers who consider the lack of access to social guarantees a significant disadvantage is increasing. ‘Despite the growing demand for social guarantees among employed people, willingness to pay voluntary or mandatory social contributions remains limited and is even declining. However, it is higher among the core group of platform workers—those who regularly receive income through platforms, formalise their orders, and are satisfied with platform employment,’ the expert notes.
In general, Biryukova concludes, the platform economy is expanding, with this form of employment becoming an additional and flexible source of income that allows people to adapt to different life circumstances. However, she adds, there is no evidence that platforms are drawing workers away from traditional labour markets or that earnings from platform work are higher than those from conventional employment. Estimates of the prevalence of this phenomenon depend greatly on the methods used to collect data.
Yaroslav Kuzminov
‘It is unrealistic to expect platform workers to voluntarily start making social contributions on a large scale. If the government considers this phenomenon to be significant, it should work with platforms to develop, over time, mechanisms for how these contributions will be collected and distributed,’ said Yaroslav Kuzminov, Academic Supervisor of HSE University, who attended the seminar.
Olesya Feoktistova
‘Our research draws on the conclusions you have reached,’ said Olesya Feoktistova, Head of the FRI Centre for Social Finance. ‘For instance, we are currently examining informal employment and its dynamics, and we have found many parallels with the findings of your research. Perhaps your future studies could provide further insights into these aspects,’ she suggested.
Lilia Ovcharova
In conclusion, the seminar moderator, HSE Vice Rector Lilia Ovcharova, thanked all the participants and noted that the next seminar of HSE University’s EBHR Project, focusing on the expenses of families with children, is scheduled for September. At the same time, she emphasised that ‘interest in informal employment is growing across a wide range of areas,’ and that HSE experts will continue to study this topic. This growing attention is driven by a variety of factors. ‘For the Ministry of Finance, this is likely related to the potential for new financial flows; for those working with labour resources, it is about understanding how people engaged in informal employment can become a source of economic growth. The shortage of labour resources is increasingly being cited as a constraint on economic development,’ Prof. Ovcharova concluded.
