Structural changes in the modern labour market are increasingly linked to digitization, technological progress, and the development of digital platforms. Digital technologies lower the barriers to self-employment, enable more flexible work processes, open up broader markets, and allow for new income generation models. Scientific literature emphasizes that digitization significantly changes the structure of employment and promotes the development of alternative forms of work (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014; Vial, 2019).
These processes have become particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the implementation of digital solutions and the development of remote work forms have accelerated. As a result, more and more people are engaging in self-employment, often mediated by digital platforms. Empirical studies show that platform-based work facilitates entry into self-employment, but at the same time is characterized by unclear employment status, income instability, and uncertainty about social security (De Stefano, 2016; Katz & Krueger, 2019).
International studies identify digitalisation as one of the main factors influencing the choice of self-employment, the structure of employment and income changes. However, the direction and extent of this impact depends on the economic structure of the country, the development of labour market institutions, and the level of digital infrastructure (Vial, 2019; Verhoef et al., 2021). In the context of Lithuania, the proportion of self-employed persons remains lower than the European Union average, and there is a lack of research empirically assessing the impact of digitalisation on the structure and income of self-employment. Previous studies in Lithuania have focused mainly on platform work, but broader analyses of the structure of self-employment are limited (Remeikienė et al., 2022).
In view of this, the research problem is formulated as follows: the impact of digitalisation on the employment structure and income changes of self-employed persons in Lithuania has not been sufficiently researched. Solving this problem is relevant from both a scientific and practical point of view, as it allows for a better understanding of the links between digitalisation and changes in the labour market and the development of self-employment.
Project results:
The aim of the study is to assess the impact of digitalisation on the employment structure and income changes of self-employed persons in Lithuania. To achieve this goal, the internship will involve: (1) analysing scientific literature on digitization and self-employment; (2) selecting and preparing empirical statistical data on self-employment and digitization indicators in Lithuania; (3) assess the statistical relationships between digitization, employment structure, and income; (4) prepare a summary of the study results.
Period of project implementation: 2026-07-01 - 2026-08-31
Project coordinator: Kaunas University of Technology
