- As elsewhere, gig economy work mitigates the income shock of losing a formal job. In China, however, it heightens long-term risks to an inadequately funded welfare system.
- The gig economy increasingly hires educated youth and white-collar workers squeezed by weak domestic demand and AI adoption.
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China’s gig economy has become a crucial employment buffer as the property crisis wipes out construction jobs and manufacturers shed workers through automation and cost-cutting amid tariffs, overcapacity and price wars.
Increasingly, it hires educated youth and white-collar workers squeezed by weak domestic demand and AI adoption.
“The proportion is extremely high,” said Yang Zhan, a cultural anthropology expert at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “It’s no longer limited to rural migrants and has spread to the middle class and university graduates.”
“China is upgrading manufacturing, and many industries that used to absorb large numbers of workers are being phased out. Then there is AI,” Zhan said.
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As elsewhere, gig economy work mitigates the income shock of losing a formal job.
But in China, one government adviser said the rise of gig jobs - where social insurance contributions are not mandatory - heightens long-term risks to an inadequately funded welfare system.
A 2019 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences report warned that the national pension fund could run out by 2035 as the population ages. A 2024 update said delaying retirement could push depletion back eight to nine years.
“It may not be easy to find a solution,” due to unstable incomes and contracts in the gig sector, said the adviser, suggesting Beijing should support the formal services industry to create better jobs.
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Although China’s unemployment rate has hovered around 5%-6% for a decade, gig work has helped keep those numbers in check because anyone working even one hour a week is considered employed.
Yet an influx of gig workers is increasingly outpacing demand in some sectors, slowing incomes.
The think-tank report said China’s 16 million food delivery riders saw their income rise 11% on average to 37.3 yuan per hour in 2025, but wages shrank 1.8% for the 37.2 million ride-hailing drivers.
At least four cities, including the tech hub of Shenzhen, have issued warnings of ride-hailing market “saturation” since April.
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A government adviser said authorities only meant to raise awareness and not to prevent people from taking more such work, as “that would become a social stability issue.”
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