SR · 01
BLS electronically mediated employment: what the Contingent Worker Supplement can and cannot register
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has used Contingent Worker Supplement modules to ask about electronically mediated employment—work obtained through websites or mobile apps that connect workers to customers and arrange payment. The module is a snapshot instrument, not a continuous platform census.
What the instrument asks
Questions typically probe whether, in a reference period, the respondent obtained short tasks or jobs through a digital intermediary. Definitions stress mediation and payment routing, not informal word-of-mouth gigs without an app layer.
Coverage limits
Secondary earnings that never pass through a named intermediary, or that respondents do not recognize as “jobs obtained through an app,” may be underreported. Households with multiple platforms or brief spells can also misalign with the recall window.
How to read published counts
Official estimates describe the share of employed persons meeting the module’s criteria in that survey wave. They are not forecasts of income, placement rates or household outcomes. Contested comparisons with tax microdata remain contested in the literature.