Flexible jobs bounce back after dull with applicants hitting 36% last year

　　Jobseekers check out recruitment information at a job fair held in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, on Feb 16, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

　　A growing number of jobseekers are extending their career boundaries to more cutting-edge areas thanks to the development of digital economy, and embracing flexible jobs breaking the stereotyped notion of labeling them as low-income or with lower working skills. The new trend makes experts to call for the working rights protection of these flexibly employed and secure the sustainable and healthy development of the thriving job sector.

　　Lin Qin, 28, is among the nation's growing population of seeking or taking new types of flexible jobs, with these jobs incubated by information technology and digital economy development.

　　Li, who offers online consultancy services on AI technology to some small-sized companies after quitting his job as a cloud-computing engineer in August, said that it's no longer a shame taking flexible jobs.

　　“I get more free time to arrange my working plans, and the income is no less than my previous job, roughly 20,000 yuan ($2,800) per month,“ he said.

　　A recent report by the recruitment portal Zhaopin and Jinan University in the southern province of Guangdong shows that the proportion of job hunters for new types of flexible jobs bounced back to a high point of 36.4 percent last year at Zhaopin's platform, with the number seeing a continuous drop from 2019 to 2021 due to people's concerns of the economy amid the COVID-19 epidemic.