Flexible employment can ease job pressure

The concept of "flexible employment" has become a hot topic of discussion, especially after Premier Li Keqiang reiterated the government policy of providing more support for flexible employment and new forms of employment during the just-concluded "two sessions". The Central Economic Work Conference held in December also said flexible employment would be promoted.

All this shows the authorities are attaching greater importance to flexible employment.

Yet the heated online discussion on flexible employment reflects the pressure on China's job market. If effectively managed, however, flexible employment could play a positive role in the country's economic and social development.

But what has prompted the authorities to pay greater attention and the people to discuss the new concept of flexible employment?

From the macro point of view, flexible employment has gained importance mainly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Non face-to-face work and lifestyle, especially working from home, became an integral part of economic and social activities after social distancing norms, one of the main prevention and control measures to contain the pandemic, were introduced in the country. It is against this background that the demand for flexible jobs including those for delivery services and influencers has surged.

China's economy faces further downward pressure and the employment market has room for improvement. In such a scenario, flexible employment could act as a cushion when the supply and demand of labor get out of sync, and fewer regular jobs are created or some people are rendered jobless. The fallow period between successive jobs is called frictional unemployment in economics. To fill in the frictional unemployment blank, flexible employment becomes the choice of many job-seekers.

In addition, the rise of mobile internet and the demand for specific industries, too, have created new opportunities for flexible employment. Millions of flexible jobs including delivery services, ride-hailing services, short-video making and livestreaming have been created thanks to the rapid development of mobile internet.

Besides, the demand for household management and cleaning service has rocketed with rising incomes and population aging. Online platforms have made the matching of supply and demand a possibility, and thus prompted the public to pay greater attention to flexible employment.

Viewed from a micro perspective, the increasingly open employment notion of job-seekers has also made flexible employment popular. Many flexible jobs offer higher pay than stable ones, are more flexible in terms of working time and have less complicated workplace relationships.

Flexible employment can not only alleviate the pressure on the job market but also help solve, to a certain extent, some of China's economic and social problems. Flexible employment can also help stabilize employment, safeguard people's incomes, and guarantee basic livelihood to people, as proposed by the government.

Hence, flexible employment should not be scoffed at.

Yet the management of flexible employment platforms, which are in a relatively strong position compared with the flexibly employed, should be strengthened. The government should introduce necessary regulations, and punish those platforms demanding or extracting unfairly high percentage of commission or deducting a high proportion of wages as commission from the workers.

Also, more friendly measures should be introduced to better safeguard social security and regulate medical insurance to make the flexibly employed feel more secure, and specific institutions should be established to help the flexibly employed and better protect their rights. And regular surveys must be conducted in order to provide free training for the flexibly employed so they can navigate the job market.

Moreover, the government should give more support to small and medium-sized enterprises, which are important providers of flexible employment, but are relatively weak when it comes to resisting risks. There is also a need to provide SMEs special assistance on various fronts such as issuing loans.

The author is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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