Modern life includes active interaction of material and virtual reality, which reveals completely new opportunities for types of employment. In this regard, it is relevant to expand the problem field to study labor relations in virtual employment. The object of the study is the social aspects of the phenomenon of virtual employment. The aim of the study is to consider the social consequences of expanding this form of employment, to assess new opportunities and risks. The novelty of the study is due to the attempt to conceptualize distance employment, considering the development of this phenomenon from the idea to the actual implementation in the time frame from classical production structures to virtual ones. The author employed the methods of source study and statistical analysis of a wide range of sources: scientific literature, statistics and sociological research data. The work reveals the difficulties of statistical observation of the processes and presents the parameters of the virtual market, obtained on the basis of specially developed indices and sociological surveys. The result of this work is the developed methodological and theoretical approaches to study of the phenomenon of virtual employment. The author substantiates recommendations for public authorities of the Russian Federation on the formation of a coherent social policy to protect the interests of employees of the virtual sphere. The research materials may be of further use to Federal agencies responsible for the development and implementation of state policy and legal regulation in the field of virtual employment. The study results may also be useful for employees of various structures of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation in order to develop methodological approaches, both in applied and predictive activities expanding virtual employment. Besides, the ideas proposed by the author may be in demand by representatives of the scientific and educational community and various business structures directly engaged in the development of new forms of employment.