Going, Going, Gone: The Online Labor Market and the Global Reverse Auction for Jobs

• In Event: 539 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Firm Strategies and Worker Outcomes, Beyond the United States

Abstract

The online labor market introduces a new spatial restructuring of work that removes nearly all temporal and spatial constraints. The spatial restructuring of work has created an “international virtual reserve army of labor” that directly contributes to lower wages and an increase in precarious work in the U.S. Given the nature and type of work that can be easily done online - primarily “idea-based” work, the more highly skilled U.S. workers, who have traditionally been more immune to globalization, have seen their “good jobs” at risk. This research analyzes wages in four occupations (software development, network and information systems, administrative support, and customer service) to understand how the online labor market is affecting American workers’ wages. Furthermore, this research more closely examines two occupations, software developer and customer service, to understand how the online labor market is affecting high-skilled “good” jobs and low-skilled “bad” jobs. Findings suggest that the online labor market is hurting wages in all four occupations but is disproportionately hurting high-skilled workers.

Author

• Michael Dunn, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill