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108 WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2016
Figure 2.6 In Brazil, internet and software use by firms throughout the economy is
associated with higher earnings
Average annual wage growth, by firms’ ICT intensity and workers’ wage levels, 2009–13
a. All workers
b. New hires from last job
0.7
0.7
0.6
0.6
0.5
0.5
Percent
0.4
0.3
Percent
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.1
0.1
0
0
Low wages Medium wages High wages Low wages Medium wages High wages
Low-intensity ICT Medium-intensity ICT High-intensity ICT
Source: Dutz and others 2015, for the WDR 2016. Data at http://bit.do/WDR2016-Fig2_6.
Note: The categories of wage levels are terciles. ICT = information and communication technology.
South Africa is already using Watson, IBM’s artificial
intelligence system, to assist in customer service. 42
Outsourcing opportunities are increasing in other
areas through online work, providing workers and
firms with access to larger, even global, employment
marketplaces (box 2.2). People can work for any
employer anywhere, with parties buying and selling
services that can be delivered online. Upwork (formerly
Elance–oDesk), the largest online outsourcing
service, had 2.8 million job postings worldwide in
2014. 43 Online jobs range from the very simple that
can be completed in a few minutes—such as signups,
forum participation, review writing, and website
testing—to the more complex, such as software development,
translation services, data entry, and administrative
support. The online work market, though
still a tiny fraction of overall employment, is worth
around US$1 billion annually, up from US$700 million
in 2009. 44
Impact-outsourcing brings online work to vulnerable
communities. Still in its infancy—employing
around 150,000 workers, or 3 percent of the total BPO
industry—it is taking hold in India, Kenya, and South
Africa. The government of Kerala, India, outsources
information technology services to cooperatives
of women from poor families through the Kudumbashree
(“Prosperity of the Family”) project. Average
earnings were US$45 a month, with close to 80 per-
cent of women earning at least US$1 a day. Nine in ten
of the women had previously not worked outside the
home. 45 Samasource, RuralShores, and Digital Divide
Data are three private service providers. Samasource
splits jobs into microwork for almost 6,400 workers,
mostly in Ghana, Haiti, India, Kenya, and Uganda, on
average more than doubling their previous income. 46
Online work can prove particularly beneficial for
women, youth, older workers, and the disabled, who
may prefer the flexibility of working from home
or working flexible hours. On freelancer.com—an
online outsourcing platform with more than 10,000
microworkers globally—57 percent of workers are
between 16 and 25 years of age. 47 In Elance (part of
Upwork), 44 percent of workers are women, compared
with just 25 percent in the nonagricultural
economy (figure 2.7). In a survey on microworkers
.com carried out for this Report, 27 percent of workers
see being able to work at home and flexible hours as
the main advantages of working online. These are
the reasons most cited, even more often than earning
extra income, especially among women (figure 2.8).
Internet-enabled entrepreneurship and
self-employment
By lowering information barriers and costs, the
internet increases experimentation and gives rise to
new opportunities for entrepreneurship and self-