The number of people working through applications grew 25.4% in 2024, compared to 2022. During this period, the number of workers in this condition increased from 1.3 million to almost 1.7 million. There are 335 thousand more people. 
During this period, there was also an increase in the participation of these workers in the universe of the employed population – people aged 14 or over who work.
In 2022, workers using applications were 1.5% of the 85.6 million employed, a proportion that reached 1.9% of the 88.5 million employed in 2024.
The data is part of the module on work through digital platforms of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad), released this Friday (17) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
>> Click here and read more about Pnad Contínua – work through digital platforms
According to the analyst responsible for the research, Gustavo Fontes, explanations for this increase may include the fact that these workers obtain more income; in addition to the flexibility that the modality allows.
“This possibility for people to choose the days they work, the working hours, the place of work, this can also be a factor”, he says.
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App types
IBGE considered four types of most popular applications, with transport being the most used modality:
- private passenger transport apps (excluding taxi): 53.1% of workers
- food delivery apps, products, etc.: 29.3%
- applications providing general or professional services: 17.8%
- taxi apps: 13.8%
In the professional services category there are cases such as designerstranslators and even telemedicine, when the doctor uses the digital platform to capture patients and carry out consultations, for example.
Of the 1.7 million workers, 72.1% have their activity classified as installation and machine operators and assemblers, which is, according to IBGE, the category that covers drivers and motorcyclists.
Informality
While in the employed Brazilian population, 44.3% of workers are informal, among those on platforms, as the IBGE calls it, this percentage jumps to 71.1%.
The IBGE considers situations such as employees without a formal contract and those who are self-employed but without a National Register of Legal Entities (CNPJ) to be informal.
The researchers identified the following links between those platformed:
- 86.1% are self-employed
- 6.1% are employers
- 3.9% are employed without a formal contract
- 3.2% are employed with a formal contract
An example of an employer is a restaurant owner who sells meals through an app.
The proportion of self-employed workers among those on platforms is three times higher than in the employed population as a whole (28.1%).
In 2024, of all self-employed people, 5.7% worked through digital platforms.
Worker profile
When outlining the profile of “platformized” workers, Pnad identified that 83.9% of them are men, a proportion well above the level in the universe of the employed population as a whole (58.8% are men).
Women account for 16.1% among those on platforms and 41.2% in the Brazilian employed population.
Researcher Gustavo Geaquinto Fontes, responsible for the study, associates male predominance with the fact that the most used apps are for delivery and passenger transport:
“The occupation of motorcycle driver is largely held by men.”
Regarding the age group, the researchers identified that 47.3% of app workers are aged 25 to 39, and 36.2% are aged 40 to 59.
When classifying workers by education, six out of ten had completed secondary education and incomplete higher education:
- complete high school and incomplete higher education: 59.3%
- completed higher education: 16.6%
- complete elementary school and incomplete high school: 14.8%
- without education and incomplete elementary school: 9.3%
Concentration in the Southeast
The research shows that more than half (53.7%) of those platformed were from the Southeast region. Next were the Northeast (17.7%), South (12.1%), Central-West (9%) and North (7.5%).
The Southeast was the only region in which the participation of app workers in the employed population (2.2%) exceeded the national average (1.9%).
Methodology
The IBGE survey collected information in the third quarter of 2024 and is part of an agreement with the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT).
The institute sought information only from people who used applications as their main form of work intermediation. In other words, anyone who works as an app driver in their spare time to supplement their income was not included in the calculation.
According to Gustavo Fontes, this exclusion does not take away the significance of the survey.
“The universe of these people is not that big,” he says, contextualizing that just under 3% of the employed population has a second activity.
Experimental
The IBGE classifies Pnad on platform work as still experimental, that is, in the testing phase and under evaluation. The study did not consider accommodation, rental or seasonal property platforms.
“We included those labor-intensive platforms”, explains Fontes, anticipating that the survey to be carried out in 2025 will provide information on e-commerce platforms.
Matter in the STF
In Brazil, there is an institutional debate about the relationship between drivers and digital platforms. The decision on whether there is an employment relationship between the parties is in the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
Workers’ representatives complain about precarious working conditions, while companies deny the existence of an employment relationship, position also defended by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
The president of the STF, minister Edson Fachin, predicts that the vote on the topic will take place in early November.
