How have they influenced job creation in business?

The home departmentsupplied through applications, has generated million-dollar profits for digital platforms and has given employment or income to thousands of people, but it has also helped small and medium-sized businesses grow and, in turn, open more jobs.

The businesses that with the covid-19 pandemic began to send their products with distributors from digital platforms, such as Uber, DiDi or Rappi, increased their income by 80%, hired 84% more staff and they opened 143% more businesses, according to a study by Víctor Carreón Rodríguez, associate professor at the National Laboratory of Public Policies.

The research by the mathematician and economist also reveals that “delivery people assign more hours to their occupation than the rest of the employed”. On average, they work 10 hours a day, because the longer they are online and accepting orders, the higher the earning range they will have.

Las digital platforms they have opened up new employment opportunities, “particularly for women, people with disabilities, young people and people left out of conventional labor markets”. However, they face various problems in their working conditions, says the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Income is variable, “the impossibility of enjoying the rights to social protection, freedom of association and collective bargaining”, are some, points out in the report Global employment and social outlook: The role of digital platforms in transforming the world of work.

“Working hours are often long and unpredictable. Half of the workers digital platforms earn less than US$2 per hour. Also, on some platforms there are notable pay gaps.”

Three benefits for the general population

In addition to creating more businesses and jobs, “there are three other benefits,” according to Víctor Carreón. “The first is that it empowered the dark kitchen”. These are restaurants that do not have a place to receive diners and produce food only for sale at home.

The platforms sped them up. “We interviewed a good group of restaurateurs and some of them told us that, thanks to the platforms, they changed their activity. Before they had a job, let’s say, normal eight hours ”and in their free time they created the products, he points out.

What digital applications did, with the work of delivery women and delivery men “was to reduce transaction costs and this model became more efficient” of the dark kitchen or ghost kitchens, the researcher told a forum on the regulation of work by application, organized by the Institute for Legal Research (IIJ) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) at the end of last year.

The second gain is that at the height of the pandemic, in 2020, home deliveries made by hundreds of thousands of hard-working people saved around one million infections of covid-19 by allowing many people to stay at home and with social distancing.

“The third indirect benefit is the saving in pollutants.” Deliveries on foot or by bicycle prevent many people from going out to buy and using their car, he explains.

Young, with high school and long hours

In the second half of 2022, mainly platform workers brought the issue of their labor rights to the public spotlight. For several years they have demanded social security, fair wages and other decent working conditions.

For some organizations, such as the National Union of Application Workers (UNTA), what is paramount is the recognition of the employment relationship part of digital companies, and its inclusion in the Federal Labor Law with the category of workers and workers.

“Distributed people have a first characteristic that makes them different from the rest of busy people”, according to Víctor Carreón: “The vast majority are young. This does not mean that there are no delivery people of other age groups, but the 80% are under 44 years of age. That does not happen in any of the other economic activities” and the majority attended high school.

One of the advantages that was raised for this type of activity is that the delivery people or drivers would be their own bosses or bosses. And what the professor and researcher figures show is that, if that were the case, they would be exploitative bosses with themselves.

“There is a good group that assigns the same number of hours to their occupation as if they were in a subordinate job.” But 80% work more than 48 hours a week “And that doesn’t happen with the rest of those employed in the economy, why? for the flexibility. One of the characteristics that companies take as a flag to not recognize the employment relationship with the delivery men and women.