Jobseekers leverage digital economy boom

A growing number of jobseekers are extending their career boundaries to more cutting-edge areas thanks to the development of digital economy, and embracing flexible jobs breaking the stereotyped notion of labeling them as low-income or with lower working skills. The new trend makes experts to call for the working rights protection of these flexibly employed and secure the sustainable and healthy development of the thriving job sector.

Lin Qin, 28, is among the nation's growing population of seeking or taking new types of flexible jobs, with these jobs incubated by information technology and digital economy development.

Li, who offers online consultancy services on AI technology to some small-sized companies after quitting his job as a cloud-computing engineer in August, said that it's no longer a shame taking flexible jobs.

"I get more free time to arrange my working plans, and the income is no less than my previous job, roughly 20,000 yuan ($2,800) per month," he said.

A recent report by the recruitment portal Zhaopin and Jinan University in the southern province of Guangdong shows that the proportion of job hunters for new types of flexible jobs bounced back to a high point of 36.4 percent last year at Zhaopin's platform, with the number seeing a continuous drop from 2019 to 2021 due to people's concerns of the economy amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

The report classifies the current new types of flexible jobs into two categories: one is location-based, with registered flexible workers taking online orders but serving in a specific real-world location, such as ride-hailing drivers and food delivery workers; while the other is cloud-based, with all services fulfilled online by workers ranging from online lecturer to livestreamer and online salesperson.

The report observed that cloud-based flexible jobs are more lucrative to young people, females and those with higher education backgrounds.

According to the report, youths aged between 21 and 25 take the largest proportion of jobseekers competing for cloud-based flexible job openings at Zhaopin's platform, which is about 45.2 percent.

Female job hunters show higher preference, accounting for 56.1 percent of the total seeking flexible jobs. The number is 12.2 percentage points higher than males, as cloud-based flexible jobs have lower requirements of physical strength but better ability of communicating and teamwork, the report said.

Tian Xiaomin, 31, working as an accountant at a pressing house in Shanghai, is a part-time online lecturer of English language. She said that the job earns her extra income of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan per month with the payment fluctuating based on her class hours.

"I've taken the part-time flexible job since 2023 out of my interest. It's very common to see a 'slashie' nowadays who won't confine to one single job but take flexible work in spare time. One of my friends is a fitness trainer at weekends while a financial analyst at workdays," she said.

Feng Shuaizhang, dean of the Institute for Economic and Social Research of Jinan University, said that the recovering economy and flourishing digital economy, platform economy and sharing economy have created more flexible job opportunities.

More jobseekers recognize the benefits of working as new types of flexible workers, which offer them personal fulfillment and quality life.

Li Qiang, vice-president of Zhaopin, noticed that flexible job openings are not limited to labor-intensive ones, but require higher working skills or professionalism of workers with the combination of digital technology and traditional industries.

"For example, the development of AI technology gives birth to some new flexible jobs requiring people to have AI knowledge or digital skills," he said, adding that employers have also digitalized their recruitment channels with big data or AI tools to help them match flexible workers with the job openings.

However, Feng, the dean, called for more sound working rights protection to people taking new types of flexible jobs by perfecting the law or regulations on labor relations, using smart tools like algorithm and big data to balance the benefits between employers and flexible workers.

He also suggested improving flexible workers' awareness of getting social security and enhancing the working skills training or services to the flexibly employed.