"200 million people in flexible employment" sends a positive signal

Video producers, webcasters, copywriters... The platform economy and the sharing economy have flourished, giving birth to a wealth of employment methods, and flexible employment has also become a new choice for young people today. The relevant person in charge of the National Bureau of Statistics recently said that by the end of 2021, China's flexible employment personnel have reached 200 million, of which more than 1.6 million are engaged in anchors and related practitioners, an increase of nearly 3 times over 2020.

Compared with the traditional long-term, fixed employment model, the advantage of flexible employment is that the access and exit mechanisms are relatively relaxed. This allows job seekers to access jobs with lower barriers to entry, and gives companies more flexibility in selecting and employing people, how to use them, and for how long. "200 million flexible workers" reflects the development direction of future employment trends, and the positive signals it sends are worthy of attention.

First, flexible employment reflects a new understanding of the concept of "employment". In the past, employment was "looking for a job", that is, seeking an employer with a relatively stable career and salary, and using it as the only financial source for supporting the family and a lifelong reliance on retirement. Those who earn money from odd jobs or work as farmers for a living are often considered "unemployed". This is undoubtedly a narrow interpretation, a biased understanding of "employment". With economic development and social progress, the traditional mainstream employment mode has been broken, and people "looking for a job" no longer look at state-owned enterprises, all-people workers, and permanent workers, but are not limited and eclectic, as long as "there is work, there is money to earn" even if employment and find a "job". It is also based on the diversity of forms that can be part-time, partnership or single-handed, lowering the threshold of the concept of "employment", a wider range, and able to absorb more workers. As many as "200 million people", reflecting people's recognition, but also supports the social progress of concept renewal.

Secondly, flexible employment makes the choices of job seekers more diverse and rich. The source of flexible employment comes from the scientific and technological progress of the Internet, and it is precisely online work that is sought after by more young people, which promotes the diversification and richness of social employment forms. Flexible employment gives job seekers the opportunity to choose "solo flight", can give full play to their personal advantages and interests, create high-quality works and achievements, and explore the direction of career development while increasing professional skills. Flexible employment not only builds a stage for the unemployed, resigned, self-employed and individual workers to show their abilities, but also further deepens mass entrepreneurship and innovation to pave the way, and the flexible employment of enterprises derived from this in turn boosts the vigorous development of flexible employment.

Third, flexible employment builds a side business path for "multi-faceted" talents. With the gradual deepening of the aging degree of the mainland, the labor force is becoming increasingly scarce, and flexible employment has made up for this shortcoming to a certain extent. It not only provides opportunities for "one specialty and multiple abilities" compound talents to display their talents, but also encourages and leads more people to tap their potential and try side businesses on the basis of doing a good job. Especially with the advent of the intelligent era, flexible employment provides a new way for "multi-faceted" talents to innovate and create value. At present, more and more people have a multi-faceted knowledge and ability reserve to meet the needs of different markets at the same time.

The 200 million flexible employment is a huge group that needs urgent attention and care, and how to protect their legitimate rights and interests has become the key to the stability and long-term development of flexible employment. To this end, our regulatory design, social security policy, enterprise management and university education must be good at building platforms, providing convenience, providing good advice, and solving problems. □ Zhang Yusheng