The number of Brazilians working through digital platforms increased by 25.4% between the end of 2022 and the third quarter of 2024, reaching 1.7 million people, according to data from Pnad Contínua released this Friday (17) by IBGE.
The advance represents 335 thousand new workers and reinforces the role of applications as an alternative income in a market still marked by high informality.
Today, 1.9% of the employed population uses applications, an increase of 0.4 percentage points in two years. The presence is greater in the Southeast (2.2%), but the model is also growing in other regions, with 1.2% in the North, Northeast and South.
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Professional services
Passenger transportation continues to be the main segment, with 1.1 million workers, including drivers for apps like Uber and 99. Next come food and product delivery people. The survey showed that around 485 thousand people work on platforms like iFood.
Despite the numbers, the biggest jump came from another sector: general and professional services, such as renovations, repairs and consultancy, which grew 52.1% between 2022 and 2024. The total number of workers increased from 193 thousand to 294 thousand in the period.
Growth by application type:
• General or professional services: +52.1% (from 193 thousand to 294 thousand)
• Passenger transport: +29.2% (from 680 thousand to 878 thousand)
• Delivery of food and products: +8.9% (from 445 thousand to 485 thousand)
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Interior gains prominence
Although the Southeast still concentrates more than half of app-based workers (888 thousand, or 53.7% of the total), the Central-West (up 58.8%) and the North (56%) led proportional growth.
Experts from the institute point to two factors for this expansion: the entry of platforms into new, less saturated regional markets, and the increase in demand for alternative work in areas with few formal opportunities.
The advance, according to analysts, indicates that applications are no longer a phenomenon restricted to large urban centers and are consolidating themselves as one of the main drivers of the new service economy in Brazil.
