Gig Workers in Indonesia: Why Social Protection Must Go Hand-in-Hand with Skills Development
Keywords:
gig economy social protection skills development informal employment platform laborAbstract
The rapid expansion of the gig economy in Indonesia has created flexible income opportunities but also reinforced the vulnerability of workers in informal employment. Beyond the lack of adequate social protection, gig workers face limited incentives and structural barriers to skill enhancement, which hinder their transition toward sustainable livelihoods. This study explores how the integration of social protection and skills development policies could reduce the precarity of gig work in Indonesia. Using a mixed-method approach that combines recent literature review and policy analysis, this research identifies that current frameworks primarily focus on short-term welfare (through BPJS Employment schemes) without addressing long-term employability. Moreover, most digital platforms provide voluntary and non-mandatory training programs, resulting in low participation and uneven skill upgrading among workers. The study argues for a dual-track reform: strengthening social security literacy and designing adaptive, mandatory, and incentive-based upskilling mechanisms embedded within platform ecosystems. These findings contribute to the policy discourse on inclusive labor protection by positioning skill development as a key pathway to exit vulnerability in the informal economy.
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