Abstract
The chapter explores the relationship between formal educational qualifications and labour market outcomes for workers on online labour platforms. Platforms are increasingly viewed as a way to address unemployment challenges in developing countries. While the rise of online labour platforms has created access to income-generating opportunities for workers it has also raised concerns regarding the nature of the work opportunities created. This chapter argues that many highly educated workers from developing countries tend to perform low-skilled tasks on such platforms and it might push well-educated and highly skilled workers in developing countries to pursue work under precarious or informal work arrangements. Further, these workers experience skills mismatches and precarity that closely resemble the situation of workers in the informal economy. By drawing on global surveys conducted with workers on microtask, freelance and competitive programming platforms, this chapter provides evidence to highlight that a range of factors other than formal educational qualifications are determining outcomes such as access to work or earnings on online labour platforms. Workers often face barriers in accessing work due to the platform design, gender or geographical discrimination and, despite having high educational attainments, the incomes of the workers are low and access to social protection is limited. The chapter thus raises concerns regarding the informalization of highly educated workers through platform work, which poses serious challenges for developing countries where the human capital of the educated workforce remains underutilized for economic and social development.