“In a way, I am in this gig job by choice, but also out of necessity as I cannot find full-time, satisfying employment,” he said.
As growth in the world’s second-largest economy slows, Xiao is among a growing number of people embracing flexible working amid the rise of the digital economy and increased competition for permanent jobs.
In China, the most common forms of gig workers include freelancers, food delivery people, live streamers and ride-hailing drivers.
Flexible employment is happening across all industries and sectors and is becoming the new norm in the labor market.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there were roughly 200 million gig workers in China over the past three years, accounting for about 23% of the workforce.
Gig work is officially known as “flexible employment” and includes part-time or temporary work that is not tied to a formal employment contract.
“Flexible employment is now becoming the new normal in the labor market across all industries and sectors, serving as a ‘new driving force’ of employment,” Bao Junlei, a researcher at the China Academy of Labor and Social Security, a government think tank, wrote in an April paper.
According to a May announcement by Zhaopin, a major recruitment agency, 19.1% of students graduating from university in 2024 chose “loose employment” and 13.7% chose “flexible employment.”
04:51
How a Beijing day laborer found new work as an online influencer
How a Beijing day laborer found new work as an online influencer
By comparison, in a similar survey last year, the rates were 18.9 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively, the report said.
This trend is growing against the backdrop of the global expansion of the gig economy.
A record 64 million people in the U.S. took on freelance jobs last year — a third of the workforce — most of them providing knowledge services or working as social media influencers, according to research from recruitment firm Upwork.
This trend is also occurring as more educated people become accustomed to flexible working (previously referring to temporary employment, mainly carried out by migrant workers) as new economic and employment patterns emerge.
Of more than 2,000 university graduates surveyed in China in 2022, about three-quarters said they were willing or had clear plans to accept gig work, according to a research paper published in the January issue of China University Student Career Guide, a monthly publication under the Ministry of Education.
“College students are increasingly paying attention to and preferring flexible employment, which has become an important social phenomenon that we need to face and address,” the report said.
The nature of flexible employment creates a series of problems
According to the study, graduates who adopted flexible employment arrangements were distributed across a variety of industries, including mobile internet, service industry, finance, computing and games.
“This is inseparable from the vibrant platform economy in China in recent years,” the report said, suggesting that authorities struggling to create jobs for young people should “actively encourage university students to move towards flexible employment”.
Beijing has introduced a series of measures to support gig workers over the past few years, including directives issued in December to standardize its 6,900 gig employment market.
China’s State Financial Regulatory Bureau chief Li Yunze vowed last month at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai to offer tailored insurance products for workers with flexible working arrangements, such as delivery drivers and ride-hailing drivers.
However, rising unemployment has led to an oversupply in the ride-hailing industry, resulting in a decline in drivers’ income.
The Guangzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau said in July that the number of vehicles serving online ride-hailing services in Guangzhou increased 24.4 percent to 121,200 between September and May, with the number of registered drivers increasing by 9,400.
During this period, the average number of orders per day for ride-hailing drivers fell from 14.21 to 12.22, and their average daily income fell 9.2% to 311.63 yuan (US$42.9).
According to the Guangzhou Daily, even if a driver doesn’t take a day off for a whole month, his monthly salary before vehicle costs is less than 10,000 yuan.
Bao added that while the gig economy is an “inevitable trend,” there are still many challenges to be addressed as it grows.
“The very nature of flexible employment raises a series of problems, including unclear definitions, incomplete statistics and difficulties in protecting workers’ rights and implementing supportive policies,” he wrote in the article.
For Xiao, the biggest drawback of being a freelancer is the relatively poor social security benefits, as you have to shell out a lot of money every month to enjoy the same benefits as the average employee.
“We hope that in future the government will share this burden further,” he added.
Additional reporting by Mia Nurimaimaithy
