In recent years, Beijing has thrown its weight behind what it terms “flexible employment”. Research suggests this cohort has expanded by a staggering 60 per cent over the past five years, expected to reach 320 million this year. That represents roughly 44 per cent of China’s working population, meaning almost one in two workers is now stuck in non-traditional roles such as food delivery, ride-hailing, or e-commerce live-streaming. Yet behind these eye-watering figures lies a grim reality: hundreds of millions of precarious workers, stripped of income security and left stranded beyond the reach of statutory workplace protections. Amid an economic slump, officials are papering over rising joblessness by funnelling the unemployed en masse into the platform economy, leaving them to shoulder the full burden of market saturation, inadequate safeguards, and plummeting earnings.
Flexible Employment: Underemployment and Disguised Unemployment by Another Name?
Under official metrics, “flexible employment” covers the self-employed, part-timers, and app-based gig workers. Government estimates historically pegged this group at roughly 200 million. However, fresh figures from the Capital University of Economics and Business’s Research Centre for New Forms of Employment reveal an even more striking trajectory. Having crossed 200 million in 2021, the total rose to 280 million last year and is set to hit 320 million this year. Among them are: 37.23 million ride-hailing drivers, 18.13 million lorry drivers and 15.90 million food delivery couriers.
Set against a total workforce of 725 million at the end of 2025, flexible workers now account for 44 per cent of the country’s labour pool.
This sharp surge is tied directly to China’s worsening employment crisis. With the broader economy faltering, the job market is failing to yield sufficient permanent roles, driving hordes of desperate jobseekers into low-barrier platform work. Under government counting methods, anyone working a single hour a week is classed as employed. As a result, millions scraping a living through odd jobs are logged as employed, turning “flexible work” into little more than a polite euphemism for underemployment and hidden joblessness.
Beijing’s uncritical push for flexible work has caused gig markets to saturate rapidly. Food delivery giant Meituan reported that while 7.45 million couriers earned income on its app in 2023, the monthly average of active couriers fulfilling orders dropped to 3.36 million in 2024. UBS estimates that China’s top three delivery platforms handle roughly 110 million orders a day; at 30 to 40 deliveries per courier, the market needs just 4 million riders.
Ride-hailing suffers from a similar glut. In Shenzhen, for instance, the average ride-hailing vehicle completed just 13 trips a day in April 2026. For a gruelling 10- to 12-hour shift, passenger fares averaged around 450 yuan (£48). Once platform commission fees and vehicle running costs are deducted, drivers are left with scraps.
Gig Workers Turn to Industrial Action as Ministerial Promises Fall Flat
Despite severe oversupply, authorities continue to channel more people into gig work. In March 2026, with youth unemployment standing at 16.9 per cent, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security alongside the Finance Ministry issued a joint directive for university graduates, explicitly listing “encouraging self-employment and flexible work” as a primary job-creation tactic.
Although youth unemployment dipped slightly in subsequent months, Premier Li Qiang reiterated calls in June to foster the “healthy development” of flexible work and gig employment, promising to bolster worker protections. Yet these pledges have proved to be mere lip service, with no concrete legislation introduced to safeguard gig workers’ rights. Non-binding guidelines previously issued by the government urged platforms to take greater responsibility for minimum pay, rest breaks, and occupational injury cover. Crucially, however, these carry no legal teeth, leaving fundamental issues—such as formal employment status, employer contributions to pensions and healthcare, unemployment cover, collective bargaining, and grievance procedures—entirely unaddressed.
Pushed to the brink by a lack of basic safeguards, platform workers have repeatedly turned to industrial action:
- 2023 (Shanwei, Guangdong): Meituan couriers staged a collective walkout over slashed subsidies, reduced delivery fees, and harsher penalty regimes.
- 2024 (Wuhan): Ride-hailing drivers organised a “May Day” stoppage to protest against platform price-slashing and exorbitant commission rates, sparking solidarity actions across other cities.
- 2026 (Baoding, Hebei): Over 100 ride-hailing drivers downed tools for two days in protest against operating firms demanding extortionate vehicle permit transfer fees of up to 30,000 yuan.
Flexible working is not inherently flawed. The true scandal lies with a government using it as a convenient dumping ground for the unemployed and a fix to massage national statistics—all while failing to offer workers basic legal cover. China was among the signatories supporting the International Labour Organization’s recently adopted Convention on Decent Work in the Platform Economy, which sets out standards on minimum pay, workplace safety, social security, algorithmic transparency, and appeal rights against arbitrary account bans. Given Beijing’s history of cracking down on labor organizing, authorities must abandon the hypocrisy. Platform obligations must be codified into law, establishing clear employment relationships and social security frameworks rather than expecting vulnerable workers to absorb every market risk under the banner of “flexibility”.