Profiling and Work Patterns of Gig Workers: Online Platform Data and Survey Analytics

Year 2025, Issue: 72, 94 - 121, 15.12.2025

Rossilah Jamil , Puteri Nor Ellyza Nohuddin , Muhammad Farhan Hizami Said

https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2024-1565181

https://izlik.org/JA75RA75WL

Abstract

Existing literature indicates that social backgrounds influence occupational choices, making them a crucial consideration for economic and human capital policies. The gig work has emerged as a popular alternative form of labor, with individuals leveraging technologies to seek and perform tasks. Gig workers play a vital role in advancing socio-economic agendas in many countries, prompting the introduction of various policies to nurture the ecosystem. Given its novelty, research on the characteristics of gig workers remains limited. With big data and machine learning analytics, it is now possible to integrate traditional approaches with new techniques in research. In this study, we aim to investigate the gig workforce by pursuing two objectives: to identify the profiles and job-seeking patterns of gig workers and to determine their work and earning behaviors within a selected segment of the gig economy. We employ a combination of data analytics and empirical surveys, focusing on data from Malaysia. Specifically, this study examined over 400,000 user profiles on the nation’s gig economy platform eRezeki via unsupervised machine learning (clustering) and association rule mining to unveil behavioral and demographic patterns. K-means clustering divided gig workers into groups according to their demographic and skill traits, and association rule mining indicated frequent job preference and income patterns related to user attributes. A further 300 Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, and Putrajaya delivery riders were also given guided questionnaires to complement and validate the platform data. This study contributes in two ways. It enhances the understanding of the talent profiles of gig workers in relation to national strategies for the gig economy. Furthermore, it illustrates the potential and complementary roles of data mining and empirical surveys in conducting research. We discuss several implications for future research.

Keywords

profiles , work patterns , gig workers , big data , survey

Supporting Institution

Fundamental Research Grant (FRGS) Malaysia and Malaysia Economic Development Corporation (MDEC).

References

• Abdul Rahim, A. F., Yaacob, N. A., Mohd Noor, R., Najid, N. A., & Zulkifli, N. (2021). Strengthening the gig economy: Future of digital labor workforce platform post-covid- 19. Gading Journal for Social Sciences, 24(4), 17-26. google scholar
• Ajunwa. (2020). Race, Labor, and the Future of Work Oxford Handbook of Race and Law, Eds. Emily Houh, Khiara Bridges, Devon Carbado. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3670785 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3670785 google scholar
• Ashford, S. J., Caza, B. B. and Reid, E. M. (2018). From surviving to thriving in the gig economy: A research agenda for individuals in the new world of work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 38, 23-41. google scholar
• Auguste, D., Roll, S., & Despard, M. (2024). Democratizing the economy or introducing Economic risk? Gig work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Occupations, 51(4), 550-606. google scholar
• Benbrahim, Souhila & Chaouche, Saloua & Toumache, & Rachid. (2022). Countries' economic segmentation using k-means clustering for the year 2021. 9, 512-528. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22728752.v1 google scholar
• BHEUU JPM (Legal Affairs Division, Prime Minister’s Department) (2024) National Baseline Assessment on Business and Human Rights in Malaysia. Accessed at: https://globalnap.org google scholar
• Blalock Jr, H. M., & Hansen, W. L. (1968). The American occupational structure. American Sociological Review, 33(2). google scholar
• Brown, P., Lauder, H., & Cheung, S. Y. (2020). The death of human capital?: Its failed promise and how to renew it in an age of disruption. Oxford University Press. google scholar
• Brown, S., Kelly, P., & Phillips, S. K. (2024). Informal economies and informal workers in Global Capitalism. In Informal Workers and a Political Economy of Lifelong Learning: Provocations from the Margins of Global Capitalism (pp. 1-20). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. google scholar
• Buchak, G. (2024). Financing the gig economy. The Journal of Finance, 79(1), 219-256. google scholar
• Butschek, S., Amor, R. G., Kampkötter, P., & Sliwka, D. (2022). Motivating gig workers: Evidence from a field experiment. Labor economics, 75, 102105. google scholar
• Bynner, J. and Parsons, S. (2002). Social exclusion and the transition from school to work: The case of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEET). J Vocat Behav, 60(2), 289-309. google scholar
• Celestin, M., & Vanitha, N. (2021). The gig economy and its effects on personal finance. Indo American Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Review, 5(2), 39-46. google scholar
• Chesters, J. (2024). Unemployment or Precarious Employment: Tough Choices for the Young Workers in the Twenty-First Century In Handbook of Children and Youth Studies (pp. 575-586). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. google scholar
• Christie, N., & Ward, H. (2019). Health and safety risks for people who drive for work in the gig economy. . Journal of Transport & Health, 13, 115-127. google scholar
• Claudiu, M. G., Iacubota, O. A. Maria, Z. (2018). An EU-level analysis of several youth unemployment related factors. Studies in Business and Economics, 13(3), 105-117. google scholar
• Cushen, J. (2020). Financing the future of work: Who pays? In A. Wilkinson & M. Barry (Eds.), The Future of Work and Employment (pp. 103–118). Edward Elgar Publishing. google scholar
• Datta, N., Rong, C., S., S., Stinshoff, C., Iacob, N., Nigatu, N. S., Nxumalo, M., & Klimaviciute, L. (2023). Working Without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40066 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.” Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2019). google scholar
• De Stefano, V., & Aloisi, A. (2019). Fundamental labor rights, platform work and human Rights protection of non-standard workers. In the Research Handbook On Labor, Business and Human Rights Law (pp. 359-379). Edward Elgar Publishing. google scholar
• Eagly, A. H. and Wood, W. (2012). Social role theory Handbook of theories of social psychology, 2, 458-476. google scholar
• Ghorpade, Y., Abdur Rahman, A., & Yi, S. (2024). Informal Employment in Malaysia: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Reform (Eng^ lish). Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099022124104015011/P1810931e836170db184871b5fe7b37157c google scholar
• Gussek, L., & Wiesche, M. (2022). The Gig Economy: Workers, Work, and Platform Perspective Wirtschaftsinformatik 2022 Proceedings, google scholar
• Haque, F., & Dard, A. R. (2023). New Face of the Job Quality Challenge in India: Gig Worker Studies. Journal of Indonesian Applied Economics, 11(1), 101-109. google scholar
• Heeks, R. (2017). Decent work and the digital gig economy: a developing country perspective on employment impacts and standards in online outsourcing, crownwork, etc. Development Informatics Working Paper, 71. google scholar
• Helling, B. (April 28, 2021) Five Ways COVID-19 Changed Gig Work For Good. Forbes Business Council. https://www.forbes.com/councils/ forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/04/28/five-ways-covid- 19-changed-gig-work-for-good/ google scholar
• Herod, A., & Lambert, R. (2016). Neoliberalism, precarious work and remaking the geography Of global capitalism. In Neoliberal capitalism and precarious work (pp. 1-36). Edward Elgar Publishing. google scholar
• Hickson, J. (2024). Freedom, domination and the gig economy. New Political Economy, 29(2), 321-336. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467. 2023.2254712 google scholar
• Holzer, H. J. and Neumark, D. (2000). Assessing affirmative action. Journal of Economic Literature, 38(3), 483–568. doi:10.1257/jel.38.3.483 google scholar
• Howcroft, D., & Bergvall-Kåreborn, B. (2019). A typology of crownwork platforms Work, Employment and Society, 33(1), 21-38. google scholar
• Hu, S., Hood, M., Creed, P. A., & Shen, X. (2022). The relationship between family socio-economic status and career outcomes: A life history perspective. Journal of Career Development, 49(3), 600-615. google scholar
• Friedman, S., Laurison, D. and Miles, A. (2015). Breaking the ‘class’ ceiling? Social mobility into Britain’s elite occupations. The Sociological Review, 63(2), 259-289. google scholar
• Huang, N., Burtch, G., Hong, Y., & Pavlou, P. A. (2020). Unemployment and worker participation in the gig economy: Evidence from an online labor market. Information Systems Research, 31(2), 431-448. google scholar
• Jabagi, N., Croteau, A. M., Audebrand, L. K., & Marsan. (2019). Gig-workers’ motivation: thinking beyond carrots and sticks. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 34(4), 192-213. google scholar
• Joo, B. A., & Shawl, S. (2021). COVID-19 pandemic and the rising gig economy: an emerging perspective. Global Economics Science, 16-23. google scholar
• Kareem, M. A., & Hussein, I. J. (2019). The impact of human resource development on employee performance and organizational effectiveness. Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, 7(3), 307-322. https://doi.org/10.25019/mdke/7.3.02. google scholar
• Keith, M. G., Harms, P., & Tay, L. (2019). Mechanical Turk and the gig economy: Exploring differences between gig workers. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 34(4), 286-306. google scholar
• Kenney, M., & Zysman, J. (2019). Work and value creation in the platform economy In Work and Labor in the Digital Age. Emerald Publishing Limited. google scholar
• Kim, T. Y., Schuh, S. C., & Cai, Y. (2020). Person or job? Change in person‐job fit and its impact on employee work attitudes over time. Journal of Management Studies, 57(2), 287-313. google scholar
• Kost, D., Fieseler, C., & Wong, S. I. (2020). Boundaryless careers in the gig economy: An oxymoron? Human Resource Management Journal, 30(1), 100-113. google scholar
• Kristof, A. L. (1996). Person‐organization fit: An integrative review of its conceptualizations, measurement, and implications. Personnel Psychology, 49(1), 1-49. google scholar
• Lane, M. (2020). Regulating platform work in the digital age. Going Digital Toolkit Policy Note. https://goingdigital.oecd.org/toolkitnotes/ regulating-platform-work-in-the- digital-age.pdf google scholar
• Lensen, A. (2021). Mining feature relationships in data. In T. Hu, Lourenço, N., Medvet, E. (eds) (Ed.), Genetic Programming. EuroGP 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 12691). Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-72812-0_16 google scholar
• Li, Y., Zhao, L., Cao, C., & Yang, D. (2025). The double-edged sword effect of algorithmic transparency: An empirical study of gig workers’ work disengagement under algorithmic management. Information & Management, 62(2), 104100. doi:10.1016/j.im.2025.104100 google scholar
• Ma, Z., Gong, Y., L., L., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Team-level high-performance work systems, self-efficacy and creativity: differential moderating roles of person–job fit and goal difficulty. In Strategic Human Resource Management and Organizational Effectiveness (pp. 254-287). Routledge. google scholar
• McWha-Hermann, I., M., I., C., S. C., & Searle, R. (2023). Moving the boundaries of IO, or of work itself? Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 16(4), 504-507. google scholar
• Mikalef, P., Boura, M., Lekakos, G., & Krogstie, J. (2019). Big data analytics and firm performance: Findings from a mixed-method approach Journal of business research, 98, 261-276. google scholar
• Mitchell, J., Li, X., & Decker, P. (2021). Gig Workers’ Financial Confidence and Behavior. Global Journal of Accounting and Finance, 5(2), 88-105. htpps://10.47177/gjaf.05.02.2021.088 google scholar
• Md Yusof, A. B., Arshad, M. M., & Ismail, I. A. (2022). Positive Youth Development through Gig Economy among Food Panda Delivery Services in Malacca, Malaysia International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(14). https://doi.org/ 10.6007/ijarbss/v12-i14/15979 google scholar
• Montgomery, T., & Baglioni, S. (2022). Transformations of work in the era of the gig economy: Towards a new paradigm of worker autonomy or exploitation? In The Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy (pp. 261-275). Routledge. google scholar
• Muldoon, J., & Sun, P. (2024). The global gig economy: how transport platform companies adapt to regulatory challenges—a comparative analysis of six countries. Industrial Law Journal, 53(3), 481-504. https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwae010 google scholar
• Mohd Soffian Lee, U. M. (2022, March). Gig ekonomi jadi alternatif rakyat jana pendapatan Baharu. Berita Harian. https://www.bharian. com.my/rencana/lain-lain/2022/03/929564/ekonomi-gig-jadi-alternatif-rakyat-jana-pendapatan-baharu google scholar
• Osterman, P. (2022). How American adults obtain work skills: Results of a new national survey ILR Review, 75(3), 578-607. https://doi. org/10.1177/00197939211018191. google scholar
• Park, I. J., & Hai, S. (2024). Person-organization fit, person-job fit and organizational commitment among hotel employees: the roles of positive affect and calling. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 36(3), 852-872. google scholar
• Poon, T. C. (2019). Independent workers: Growth trends, categories, and employee relation implications in the emerging gig economy Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 31, 63-69. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-018-9318-8. google scholar
• Qiao, S., Huang, G., & Yeh, A. G. O. (2023). Who are the gig workers? Evidence from mapping the residential locations of ride-hailing drivers using a big data approach. Cities, 132, 104112. google scholar
• Rahman, H. A. (2021). The invisible cage: Workers’ reactivity to opaque algorithmic evaluations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 66(4), 945-988. google scholar
• Ramesh, S., & Shobha, C. (2025). Unequal gigs: developing a scale to measure the socio- economic disparities among gig workers. Deci^ sion, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40622-025- 00422-6 google scholar
• Reynolds, J., & Kincaid, R. (2023). Gig work and the pandemic: Looking for good pay from bad jobs during the COVID-19 crisis. Work and Occupations, 50(1), 60-96. google scholar
• Smith, J. W. (2016). The Uber-all economy of the future. The Independent Review, 20(3), 383- 390. google scholar
• Sudan, F. K. (2021). Technological Disruptions, Youth Unemployment, and Vocational Education Challenges in South Asia: A Short Report. Global Economics Science, 2(2), 80–97. https://doi.org/10.37256/ges.222021769 google scholar
• Scroggins, W. A. (2008). The relationship between employee fit perceptions, job performance, and retention: Implications of perceived fit Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 20, 57-71. google scholar
• Stanford, J. (2017). The resurgence of gig work: Historical and theoretical perspectives. The Economic and Labor Relations Review, 28(3), 382-401. google scholar
• Steinberger, B. Z. (2017). Redefining employee in the gig economy: Shielding workers from the Uber model Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 23, 577. google scholar
• Tan, P.-N., Steinbach, M., & Kumar, V. (2019). Introduction to data mining (2nd ed.). Pearson. google scholar
• Tonidandel, S., King, E. B. and Cortina, J. M. (2018). Big data methods: Leveraging modern data analytic techniques to build organizational science. Organizational Research Methods, 21(3), 525-547. google scholar
• Watson, G. P., Kistler, L. D., Graham, B. A., & Sinclair, R. R. (2021). Looking at the gig picture: Defining gig work and explaining profile differences in gig workers’ job demands and resources. . Group and Organization Management, 46(2), 327-361. google scholar
• Webster, J. (2016). Microworkers of the gig economy: Separate and precarious. In New labor Forum (Vol. 25, pp. 56-64). CA: SAGE Publications. google scholar
• Williams, P., McDonald, P., & Mayes, R. (2020). Recruitment in the gig economy: Attraction and selection on digital platforms The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-27. google scholar
• Wu, D., & Huang, J. L. (2024). Gig work and gig workers: An integrative review and agenda for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 45(2), 183-208. google scholar
• Wulansari, A. D., Novianto, A., Keban, Y. T., & Hernawan, A. (2024). Hiding behind the platform: the myth of flexibility for gig workers in Indonesia. South East Asia Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/0967828x.2023.2292101 google scholar
• Yang, L. Q., Che, H. and Spector, P. E. (2008). Job stress and well‐being: An examination from the view of person‐environment fit. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 81(3), 567-587. google scholar
• Yaroshenko, O. M., Tkachenko, V. S., Puntus, D. A., Yakovleva, G. O., & Konopeltseva, O. O. (2024). Models of social protection for workers in the gig economy: Legal challenges and prospects. Science of Law, 2024(3), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.55284/sol.v2024i3.139 google scholar
• Young, J. (2021). Gig Economy Penetration in Asia and Its Challenges Retrieved from https://bunnystudio.com/blog/gig-economy-penetration-in-asia/ google scholar
• Yousef, M. (2024). Navigating the Gig Economy: Evolution, Economic Impact, and the Future Trends. In: Hamdan, A. (eds) Achieving Sustainable Business Through AI, Technology Education and Computer Science Studies in Big Data, vol. 159. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-71213-5_57 google scholar
• Van Slageren, J., Herrmann, A. M., & Frenken, K. (2023). Is the online gig economy beyond National reach? A European analysis. Sociol Economic Review, 21(3), 1795-1821. google scholar
• Zakariah Z, Janom N, Arshad NH. 2018. Low-income community as crowd worker for crowdsourcing: Issues, challenges, and future direction. International Journal of Engineering and Technology (UAE), 7(4), 65-70. google scholar
• Zhang, P. (2025). Training for gig workers: a systematic review and research agenda. Learning Organization, 32(2), 149-168. google scholar
• Zhang, C. (2022). Sharing economy: challenges for the labor market and the labor law in China and globally: a micro-comparative analysis of the EU, US, and Asia. European Business Organization Law Review, 23(4), 1025-1047. google scholar
• Zulkifly, S. S. (2023). Work-related safety and health issues among food and parcel delivery riders. In International Business^New Insights on Changing Scenarios. IntechOpen. google scholar
• Zurich. (2019). People protection: Insights on empowering an agile workforce. google scholar