More and more Chinese people opting for gig work

After getting off work at 5 p.m., an enterprise employee surnamed Zhang usually gets into his car and opens a ride-hailing app on his smartphone to receive orders. Being a part-time ride-hailing driver, Zhang gets enough flexibility on the job and earns extra income.

A ride-hailing driver cleans his car in Rongjiang county, southwest China’s Guizhou province. (Photo/Li Changhua)

Like Zhang, an increasing number of people in China are turning to gig work, a way for them to have more control over what their jobs entail, and more flexibility in when and where they work.

Driven by the surging development of Internet technologies and online platforms that can quickly match demand with supply in the labor market, the gig economy is booming in the country.

Some 200 million Chinese people are now opting for flexible employment and a large portion of them are working in the gig economy, statistics from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security showed.

An institute predicted that as many as 400 million people in the country may be gig workers, or people employed in nontraditional ways, by 2036.

The gig economy led to a 10.43 percent increase in China’s GDP, according to a report issued by the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University at the end of 2020. The figure was expected to reach 13.26 percent by 2035.

Photo shows a photography enthusiast surnamed Yang taking photos of the sunrise in the Beidaihe scenic area of Qinhuangdao, north China’s Hebei province. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

The most prominent feature of the gig economy is that it relies on Internet technologies and brings more opportunities for job-hunters, including errands like food delivery and professional services such as online marketing, writing and translation through online platforms, said Yan Fei, an associate professor from the same school at Tsinghua University. Yan added that the gig economy brings opportunities for more job-hunters and provides strong support for orderly social and economic development.

Some people choose to be gig workers because they can do the things they love while earning more. A programmer surnamed Yang has a thing for photography, often photographs in his spare time and posts his photography works on some commercial photography websites. He earns commission per image download, which can bring him a monthly income of several hundred yuan.

Yang also photographs for some commercial activities, earning several hundred yuan to several thousand yuan for each event. “I never thought that I can earn a lot of money from my hobby,” he said excitedly.

China has also issued guidelines to better protect gig workers’ rights and interests, including social insurance.