Freelancer tops happiest job list for first time in 2015: survey

The career with the highest happiness ranking this year in China is freelancer, according to Xiaokang, a fortnightly Chinese magazine.

The "2015 Chinese happiness index" survey was jointly conducted by the magazine and the media research lab of Tsinghua University.

Although 52.5 percent of respondents agreed no direct correlation between wealth and happiness, money still tops the list of factors affecting people's feeling of contentment, followed by factors such as fulfilling one's ability, human relations, welfare and social prestige.

As many as 91.8 percent hope they could have more time to spend with family and friends, the survey stated.

Thus, freelancers have good reasons to top this year's rankings of the happiest job. It allows people to arrange work based on private schedules, free of any confrontation that stems from office gossip and politics. On the other hand, the job is an object of envy in terms of salary.

More than 68 percent of O2O (online to offline) freelancers earn 5,000 yuan ($781) in a month, with nine percent more than 10,000 yuan, a report last year stated, adding that O2O freelancers continue to grow in the marketplace.

On the happiest job list, freelancer is followed by teacher, government official, artist, civil servant, tour guide, private entrepreneur, fitness coach, actor and business-starter.

Government official, teacher and civil servant were at the top in 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively.