In recent years, with the flourishing development of the digital economy, new forms of employment relying on internet platforms have grown rapidly. These new employment forms offer significant job capacity, low entry barriers, high flexibility, and part-time opportunities, becoming essential channels for job absorption. Notably, during the pandemic control period, workers in new employment forms like online delivery drivers and telehealth doctors quickly stepped in to ensure people's daily lives and work continued smoothly, helping to fully restore economic and social order.
The vitality of these new employment forms shows promise as a crucial engine for securing residents' jobs. Compared to traditional flexible employment, new employment forms are more organized and regulated, enhancing workers' job quality. More importantly, this employment transformation has sparked the innovative spirit of countless ordinary workers, benefiting China's economic potential by leveraging human capital.
However, new employment forms have shortcomings: labor relations need clarification, social security needs improvement, and platform regulation is lacking. To maximize the positive impact of new employment forms on job security, existing policies must be adjusted and improved, legal gaps filled, and the social security system innovated to ensure the orderly and vibrant development of these new employment forms.
"You have a new food delivery order, please process it promptly!"
"You have a new 'home teacher' service request, please follow up!"
"A passenger is requesting a ride from 4 Xidawang Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, to Beijing South Station. Do you accept the order?"
In the mobile internet era, more and more people's job tasks come from their phones, leading to new changes in employment forms. These new forms connect laborers directly with consumers through internet platforms. Statistics show that the number of food delivery workers in China has surpassed 7 million, and the Didi platform alone has attracted over 10 million workers, creating jobs for over 6 million people across the industry chain.
At this year's National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, representatives suggested establishing laws to regulate "new employment forms." President Xi Jinping emphasized that although new business models are emerging, legal regulations should not lag behind. Laws must be promptly researched and improved continuously amidst changes.
How is the development of new employment forms progressing? What is their impact? How should we address the shortcomings and continue improving? The reporter conducted an investigative interview.
New Forms
Flexible monthly shared designers, online "home teachers"... China's new employment forms lead globally in the number of practitioners and service types diversity.
"You have successfully accepted the order!" Recently, the Chuangyishe team received another monthly order. For the next month, designer Wenjun Fang will be the shared designer for Xiubeixing, responsible for designing product detail pages and overall store layout.
"We never thought we could serve different companies monthly through an online platform," said Jiangshan Wu, head of the Chuangyishe team. Since April this year, the team has received more than 10 monthly orders, with each designer serving 2-3 companies.
Earlier this year, Chuangyishe, based in Hangzhou, saw a sharp decline in offline business due to the pandemic. Although online business was progressing well, orders were mostly project-based, ending after delivery, leaving the team in a cycle of finding new orders.
The turning point came in April. The flexible employment monthly service launched on the Zhu Ba Jie platform brought "long-term orders," boosting the team's confidence.
"This is a win-win situation," said Chunrong Du, Vice President of Zhu Ba Jie. For designers, monthly services provide more stable work, improving job quality; for enterprises, especially small and micro enterprises, it better meets their needs.
During the pandemic control period, the service industry accelerated its shift online, with Zhu Ba Jie discovering that many small and micro enterprises had continuous, irregular service needs. For example, online store owners often require ongoing photo editing and detail page design during promotional seasons.
"Traditional project-based online platform orders can't meet these store owners' needs. They need designers who are always online and ready to work," Chunrong Du explained. Since most online store owners can't afford full-time designers, flexible employment monthly services emerged, allowing small and micro enterprises to share designers monthly.
At the same time, in Beijing, Linlin Xu, like Wenjun Fang and Jiangshan Wu, also provided professional services through an online platform.
Due to the pandemic, kindergartens were generally closed in the first half of the year, halting recruitment. Linlin Xu, a preschool education graduate, struggled to find a job. Later, she found the Moremom platform, took online orders, and became a "home teacher."
On the platform, parents can group together to hire a teacher. By becoming a shared teacher for 4-5 children, Linlin Xu successfully found employment. "Taking online orders is both flexible and well-paid. I plan to continue doing this," she said.
During the pandemic control period, more workers stepped out of traditional jobs and found employment through internet platforms in online retail, mobile travel, online education and training, internet healthcare, online entertainment, and other industries, becoming part of the new employment forms workforce.
New employment forms are the inevitable result of the interaction between economic development, market competition, and technological progress. According to Chenggang Zhang, Director of the China New Employment Forms Research Center, the application of new technologies like 5G, industrial internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing drives industrial upgrading and business model restructuring, leading to the widespread emergence of new business models like the sharing economy and platform economy, and consequently, this labor market transformation.
On one hand, in the digital economy era, one worker's tasks can be divided into ten, a hundred, or even more processes and tasks, leading to more detailed job divisions.
On the other hand, new technologies enable internet platforms to coordinate large-scale, wide-range resource allocation and task distribution activities between workers and consumers, making organization and coordination more precise.
As a result, new employment forms feature high matching efficiency, new organizational methods, and new employment concepts.
High matching efficiency: New employment forms utilize internet and big data technologies to organize labor resources, significantly reducing transaction costs and enhancing the matching efficiency between workers and consumers, achieving rapid labor supply and demand connection.
New organizational methods: The relationship between workers and job positions in new employment forms is not as tight as in traditional industries, with more flexible agreements on salary, working hours, and location.
New employment concepts: Similar to Linlin Xu, new employment forms allow some workers to move away from the pursuit of "iron rice bowl" jobs and towards more flexible, autonomous work.
"Currently, China's new employment forms lead the world in the number of practitioners and service type diversity," said Rong Mo, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences.
According to the "China Shared Economy Development Report (2020)" released by the National Information Center Sharing Economy Research Center, in 2019, platform enterprises employing new employment forms had 6.23 million employees, a 4.2% year-on-year increase, and platforms created approximately 78 million jobs, a 4% year-on-year increase.
New Changes
New employment forms relying on internet platforms organize flexible employment, giving it new meaning, and have become a vital part of new employment in China.
In the digital economy era, about 78 million people in China are engaged in new internet platform-based employment forms. How will these rapidly growing new employment forms change the Chinese job market?
• New employment forms are expected to become crucial engines for securing residents' jobs.
Chenggang Zhang estimates that by 2020, shared economy service providers will create 100 million job positions.
During the pandemic control period, the service industry's shift online created vast opportunities for new employment forms. Data shows that in the first half of this year, the number of delivery riders earning income through Meituan reached 2.952 million, a 16.4% year-on-year increase; the number of skilled service providers registered on the Zhu Bajie platform increased by 116.8% year-on-year. Particularly, new employment forms' low barriers and large capacity provided numerous job opportunities for women, the elderly, disabled people, impoverished laborers, and migrant workers, offering them better income prospects.
"As long as you are not afraid of hard work and take more orders, you can earn over 8,000 yuan per month." Song Li, 24, from Zhenxiong County, Yunnan Province, became a food delivery rider and paid off his family's debts. In the first half of this year, nearly 80,000 new Meituan riders came from registered impoverished households.
• New employment forms help improve workers' job quality.
Data shows that around 200 million people in China are engaged in flexible employment, including self-employed individuals, temporary cleaners, and construction workers. These jobs often have low income levels, poor stability, and lack career development paths and welfare protection.
Yanbing Zhao, a laid-off worker from a coal mine in Jincheng, Shanxi, struggled to make ends meet with odd jobs due to his limited skills. Fortunately, in 2019, Jincheng introduced the Didi platform. With a car at home, Yanbing Zhao became a ride-hailing driver, now earning nearly 3,000 yuan per month.
Data shows that 20.4% of full-time drivers on the Didi platform started working in ride-hailing due to layoffs or unemployment. Additionally, 19.9% of drivers were short-term unemployed individuals who used ride-hailing to bridge their employment gaps.
Weiguo Yang, Dean of the School of Labor and Human Resources at Renmin University of China, stated that new employment forms, with internet platforms as organizers, have redefined flexible employment. "Although new employment forms are less stable than traditional full-time jobs, they are more organized and regulated compared to traditional flexible employment, offering advantages in income levels, Continuing from where we left off:
Weiguo Yang, Dean of the School of Labor and Human Resources at Renmin University of China, stated that new employment forms, with internet platforms as organizers, have redefined flexible employment. "Although new employment forms are less stable than traditional full-time jobs, they are more organized and regulated compared to traditional flexible employment, offering advantages in income levels, working conditions, and job stability."
• New employment forms also help to unleash workers' potential and leverage human capital advantages.
Weiguo Yang analyzed that in new employment forms, workers directly serve customers and receive feedback, which helps them better understand customer needs, continuously improve their ability to meet these needs, develop a professional spirit, and cultivate craftsmanship.
Countless ordinary workers are using new technologies, platforms, infrastructure, and policy opportunities to enhance their personal value. Particularly, the shared and part-time nature of new employment forms allows underemployed individuals to earn higher incomes through platforms.
"Through analyzing riders' careers, we found that in addition to being riders, they might also be small business entrepreneurs, skilled workers, company white-collar employees, etc.," said Ruidong Zhang, Director of the Alibaba New Service Research Center. Data from Ele.me's Hummingbird shows that 56% of riders have a second job, with 26% being small business entrepreneurs and 21% being skilled workers.
"During the pandemic control period, many workers from the service and mechanical manufacturing industries took up part-time jobs as delivery riders," Ruidong Zhang said. By delivering food part-time, 16% of riders could earn an additional 4,000 to 6,000 yuan per month, and 8% could earn over 6,000 yuan, with this income accounting for about 40% of their family's total income.
"The initiative and innovative spirit of ordinary workers are better stimulated in new employment forms, which helps China fully leverage human capital advantages," said Chenggang Zhang.
New Enhancements
The main shortcomings in the development of new employment forms are related to workers' identity recognition and rights protection. Government departments should promptly study and address these issues, continuously improving amidst changes.
How should new employment forms be developed and expanded?
"This requires us to follow the trend while addressing the shortcomings," said Rong Mo. Following the trend means adapting to the development of the information technology revolution and the digital economy, as well as changes in the labor market and workers' employment preferences, implementing inclusive and prudent regulation, and supporting the development of new employment forms.
"New employment forms pose new requirements for traditional management methods, labor laws, employment service management, and social security policies," said Chenggang Zhang. This requires government departments to promptly study and address the shortcomings, continuously improving amidst changes.
Experts interviewed indicated that the main shortcomings are in workers' identity recognition and rights protection.
• Clarifying labor relations.
The investigation revealed that the relationship between platform operating companies and workers mainly includes labor dispatch relationships and intermediary contract relationships. On platforms like Meituan, third-party companies generally sign labor contracts with riders, and the platform signs labor dispatch agreements with third-party companies. Some crowdsourcing service platforms position themselves as matchmaking platforms and sign service contracts with workers, thus not establishing labor relations with them.
However, most of China's social security systems, such as minimum wage, enterprise social security contributions, rest and vacation, and work injury compensation, are based on established labor relations between enterprises and workers. "The unclear labor relations in new employment forms may increase the individual risk burden," Chenggang Zhang said.
• Improving social security.
Due to unclear labor relations, many workers in new employment forms can only pay urban employee pension and medical insurance as flexible employees under the current policies.
"Flexible employees bear a relatively heavy burden to achieve the same level of protection," Chenggang Zhang said.
• Strengthening platform supervision.
The commission rates of different platforms vary, significantly affecting workers' income levels. Chenggang Zhang introduced that statistics show the commission rates of different platforms mainly range from 10% to 20%, with 23.02% of platforms having commission rates exceeding 20%.
Jiangshan Wu admitted that workers are often at a disadvantage in the commission rate discussion with platforms. "What we can do is try to adjust ourselves and adapt to the environment."
To address the shortcomings of new employment forms, many cities and platforms have explored solutions, especially in strengthening the protection of workers' rights in new employment forms, finding some effective paths.
• Government purchasing services to create occupational injury insurance for flexible employees, covering social security "blind spots."
In 2017, Wujiang District in Suzhou launched the first occupational injury insurance for flexible employees nationwide, with the district's Human Resources and Social Security Bureau withholding premiums and then transferring them to commercial insurance companies. According to the new insurance design, the premium is 180 yuan per person per year, with a fiscal subsidy of 120 yuan per person per year, and the insured person only needs to pay 60 yuan annually. In the event of occupational injury, medical expenses incurred in medical institutions are first reimbursed by medical insurance, with the balance paid by occupational injury insurance according to standards, up to 30,000 yuan per insurance year.
"New employment form workers do not have clear employers, so they cannot be included in the existing work injury insurance system. Wujiang District innovatively launched occupational injury insurance for flexible employees through government and commercial insurance company cooperation, reducing the risk of poverty due to illness for this group after occupational injuries," Chenggang Zhang said.
• Guiding the establishment of platform worker unions to help protect workers' rights.
In recent years, various regions have explored attracting workers in new employment forms to join unions and launched online "workers' homes," providing a warm haven for new employment form workers.
Shanghai rider Yi Wu said that having a union feels like having a home, with a channel to protect their rights. Riders often face difficulties like finding places to rest, charge their phones, or use the restroom. After the union was established, Shanghai set up outdoor worker relay stations along major roads, providing riders and other outdoor workers with services like rest, heating food, water supply, charging electric vehicles, and restroom facilities.
"When we face grievances, difficulties, and seek help, the union is our strong backing," Yi Wu said.
• Enhancing employee care, platform companies actively using commercial insurance to provide additional protection for employees.
Didi Chuxing launched "DiDi Health Insurance," an innovative commercial insurance product that provides ride-hailing drivers with coverage for outpatient services, hospitalization, and major illnesses. For major illness insurance, participating drivers only need to contribute 0.1 yuan per completed order to receive 100 yuan in coverage, with the amount accumulating based on the number of orders.
The General Office of the State Council recently issued the "Opinions on Supporting Multi-Channel Flexible Employment," clearly stating the need to reasonably set regulatory rules for the internet platform economy and other new business models, encourage internet platform enterprises and intermediary service agencies to reduce service fees and franchise management fees, create more flexible employment positions, and absorb more labor force employment.
"We look forward to establishing a multi-party collaborative governance mechanism involving government departments, platform enterprises, industry associations, resource providers, and consumers to promote the development of new employment forms," Chenggang Zhang said.