How do gig Workers Experience Their Job Characteristics In Pakistan? Autonomy, Diversity, and job Demands

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18759805

Abstract

This study is a mixed-methods study, which tries to explore the experiences of gig workers in Pakistan. The study highlights the central features of employment as job autonomy, job variety, and job demands. With the background of the distinctive socio-economic structure of the Pakistani state and infrastructure conditions, the study tries to explore the implications of the global model of platforms. For this purpose, a cross-sectional survey is conducted among 500 gig workers. In addition, interviews were conducted with 30 of them. The findings of the research among the gig workers disclosed the segregation of strata. Workers working as freelancers showed higher levels of autonomy and job variety, along with less emphasis on the algorithm and the level of job demands. This is followed by high levels of job demands among ride-hailers and delivery workers. Altogether, they express low job satisfaction. Regression analysis was conducted; the findings showed the significance of job autonomy as a key resource. However, the positive impact is reduced in conditions of extreme economic pressure. "Illusions" of autonomy, recognized through qualitative research, include autonomy that is restricted by the imposition of the algorithm and economic duress, diversity that leads either to skills enhancement or exhaustion, and tasks that are highly intensified in the case of demands. The conclusion arrived at in this research is that the nature of gig economy work in Pakistan is that of contextualized precarity, where the nature of the gig economy, in the form of the algorithmic intensification of informality, is prevalent. This research addresses a critical gap in the literature, which has hitherto largely been dominated by the West.