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HONG KONG: Pivoting to a tech-driven growth model after the collapse of the property sector is a sensible move for China. The strategy has helped Beijing win a trade truce with Washington. But it may take years for the country’s industrial giants to mature enough to create enough jobs. 

In the meantime, some 200 million people – equivalent to about 40 per cent of the urban labour force – are stuck in the gig economy. That experience lies at the core of writer Hu Anyan’s bestselling memoir I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, a raw, darkly comical work newly available in English. Policymakers must move more quickly and decisively with reforms to support this large and powerful group of consumers that the slowing economy can’t afford to do without.

The book takes readers behind the scenes of an e-commerce worker’s daily grind, in an echo of Anthony Bourdain’s restaurant industry account Kitchen Confidential. It affirms the need for Beijing to give legal protections, health insurance and social security benefits to these workers.

It’s an idea that is likely to find support from Alibaba, JD.com and Meituan, a trio of delivery giants trying to add drivers as they battle for market share. They are already offering more benefits than mandated by the state.

EXHAUSTING, DEHUMANISING, ALIENATING

Hu’s low-wage jobs as an overnight worker at a logistics warehouse and a delivery driver were often exhausting, dehumanising, and alienating – experiences that gig workers in other countries will no doubt recognise. But the difference in China is the sheer scale of size and competition. Everything is just much bigger, faster, and more ruthless.

Some of Hu’s most compelling insights from his three years in the industry were about going to the bathroom. Or, rather, not going. During his time in the packaging facility, he worked 12-hour overnight shifts. The warehouse was so hot that the author “sweated so much I never once needed to pee while on shift.” 

As a driver in Beijing, Hu did occasionally relieve himself. But because time was money, he began calculating whether going to the toilet was worthwhile from a financial perspective. Each idle minute costs seven US cents, a consequential amount given he was working six days a week, aiming to make US$1,000 a month.

Hu stopped doing delivery work at the end of 2019 after his most generous employer folded. Since then, the national employment picture has become more precarious. 

Gerard DiPippo, an associate director at the RAND China Research Center, estimated that the 12.5 million jobs that were created in the year through June undershot the pre-pandemic trajectory by about 1.6 million.

Online data has shown a decline in new job postings, he said, while part-time and gig roles have become more prevalent. About 15 million have left the construction industry over a decade with many landing in the services sector, which includes ad-hoc delivery work.

REASON TO ACT NOW

The deterioration in employment should give officials more reason to act. For now, though, they seem to be content to wait things out.

Politically empowered from battling Washington to a standstill on trade on the strength of the country’s industrial prowess, Beijing has put even more emphasis on high-tech industries as a growth driver. The current strategy centres around betting that the property crisis will eventually resolve itself someday while the tech sector consolidates and scales up enough to provide more jobs.

But ignoring the freelance economy would be a mistake. Over the past five years, a number of national administrative guidelines have been issued, setting out a legal basis to provide benefits and protections to these types of workers.

This is potentially a major innovation in labour law. However, it lacks enforcement and implementation teeth, so the situation on the ground hasn’t materially changed, according to Ou Lin, a Chinese employment law expert at Lancaster University in the UK.

Now, policymakers should waste no time in creating the necessary framework to improve conditions for gig workers. Beijing won’t face any pushback from e-commerce giants – they’ve been gradually offering their riders more benefits as a recruitment tool. Still, having a more solid legal foundation would set the stage for sustained and steady improvements for freelancers, without relying on the whims of the big players.

Beijing’s bet on its industrial sector hasn’t quite paid off in terms of job creation and wealth distribution. Hu has had his Cinderella moment and no longer needs to toil away as a gig worker, thanks to the success of his writing. For so many others, freelancing is still their livelihood. They shouldn’t be ignored.