These guidelines serve as a comprehensive framework to assess, analyze, and understand the multifaceted dimensions of digital employment. They provide a roadmap for policymakers, researchers, statisticians and practitioners to gather accurate and reliable data, measure the impact of digitalization on employment and develop evidence-based policies that can effectively address emerging issues and ensure decent working conditions for all, including displaced populations, young people, older workers and informal workers.

The digital economy has the potential to create new forms of work, enhance productivity and foster inclusive growth. However, it also brings forth a range of challenges, including the digital divide, precarious work arrangements and the erosion of traditional employment structures. By providing guidelines for undertaking digital employment diagnostics, the ILO aims to support its constituents and stakeholders in leveraging the opportunities offered by the digital economy while mitigating the associated risks.

This document is the result of extensive research, consultations and collaboration with experts and stakeholders from around the globe. It combines the latest insights, best practices and methodologies for analyzing digital employment and its impact on individuals, enterprises, and society. The guidelines benefited from an ILO-led piloting exercise in Uganda which included an initial analysis, stakeholder consultations and a case study. The piloting was done in collaboration with the ILO PROSPECTS Opportunity Fund project “Promotion, inclusion and protection of refugees and host communities in the gig economy”.