Volunteers sell tea through livestreaming at a garden base in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province on April 3, 2023. Tea farmers across the country are rushing to pick tea leaves amid the Qingming Festival, as they are expected to sell at the highest price during the holiday. Photo: cnsphoto

Gig drivers, deliverymen, livestreaming sale promoters… more and more gig jobs are popping up, absorbing a large number of job seekers. Not only do they show the extent of the tremendous changes seen on China's employment landscape, they also have injected growing impetus into the economic growth.

"I signed up to offer hitch ride services on a ride-hailing platform three months ago, and the proceeds can cover my commute cost," a Beijing-based resident surnamed Lü told the Global Times on Sunday.

Lü is an IT programmer who changed his job at the end of 2022 and had to commute 25 kilometers to the office. "It is good to have such kinds of channels to earn some extra money," he said, noting that many of his friends have also registered on similar platforms.

A fresh college graduate surnamed Chen has been taking video-editing orders online. "This part-time job takes me two hours a day. It covers my daily expenses and leaves me with more time to seek another job I would aspire," Chen told the Global Times. 

China will have 11.58 million new college graduates this year, a new record. In order to boost employment, governments at all levels are rolling out support measures. Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province organized 878 job fairs within the first three months of the year and helped 59,700 people find jobs, according to media reports.

East China's Anhui Province plans to guide industries and firms to provide at least 600,000 jobs, and the province will support about 20,000 college graduates to start their own businesses.

Rapid recovery of services 

The job market will continue to improve alongside the country's economic recovery this year, with booming jobs demand and supply, online recruitment platform BOSS Zhipin told the Global Times in a statement.

Services including logistics, tourism and healthcare are among sectors that have shown early and obvious signs of recovery with growing employment, it said.

Chinese people used to adore "iron bowls," meaning secure and usually life-long jobs like civil servants. However, huge changes have taken place in the recent two decades, with further diversification in the employment market, experts said.

For instance, many youngsters, including the highly skilled, now choose to take gig jobs and "light manual work" such as pet grooming, coffee house baristas, or bookstore clerks.

Employment 'reservoir'

As for the gig jobs, the sector has seen rapid expansion along with the growth of the sharing economy in which online platforms connect consumers and businesses more effectively. With the advantage of relatively easier entry and exit, gig jobs are regarded as a "reservoir" of employment, experts noted.

It provides a "buffer zone" for fresh graduates who have not found their preferred full-time jobs, and could meet the demand of certain segments of the labor force to work part-time or remotely, Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology, told the Global Times.

Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing told the Global Times in a statement that the platform has provided jobs for more than 32 million ride-hailing drivers. "As one of the typical flexible employment platforms, Didi plays an outstanding role as an employment stabilizer," it said.

China had recorded 200 million flexible workers by May 2021. With the numbers rapidly increasing, governments have ramped up efforts to guarantee incomes and social welfare. 

The gig industry offers ample jobs under the shared economy which connects millions of families and individuals and helps boost the development of the society and economy, Chinese experts said.

The gig jobs are never a "career downgrade" for the massive young entrants into the work force, Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times. It reflects the evolution of employment philosophy in the country, as young people prefer flexible and independent job arrangements, Li said.

The assertion that the gig job boom might be covering a weak labor market or a weak economy is false, Li said. However, Li warned that attention should be paid to the problem of highly skilled individuals perpetuating in gig jobs as such highly skilled labor could be wasted.