Almost 700,000 Canadians did work through digital platforms like Uber, and SkipTheDishes and YouTube in 2024, up from 468,000 people in 2023, according to Statistics Canada data. The number of digital gig workers increased from 1.7 per cent of the population aged 15 to 69 to 2.3 per cent. (The Logic)
Talking point: Delivery of food and goods was the most common type of work, with 266,000 people providing those services through digital platforms in 2024. That’s down from about 278,000 a year earlier, with other work—like content creation, home rentals, tutoring, coding and pet sitting—helping boost growth in the digital gig economy. New immigrants were three times more likely to have done digital gig work than those born in Canada, and more racialized Canadians worked in this space than those who were white or Indigenous. The increase in gig work has spurred legislation to improve employment rights in the market, including minimum wage laws for app-based workers in B.C., as well as Ontario, where new rules are set to take effect in July.