BEIJING - Many Chinese workers, especially the young, are opting to leave the traditional job market to pursue more flexible employment opportunities.
“I thought that changing the course of my life might pose a risk, but I was willing to take it. It is never too late to restart my career, as I am a smart person with excellent abilities,” said Ms Tang, who worked at a farm in Jinhua, Zhejiang, for a few months before buying her own in Anji earlier this year.
He decided to do something he enjoyed. As he was fond of travelling and writing travel blogs in his spare time, Mr Shen spent 12 months journeying throughout China last year on his savings, while continuing to earn money by working on cultural and tourism projects as a freelancer. Workers want flexibility in where, when and how they are employed. Since 2019, there has been an 83 per cent rise in the number of job posts mentioning “flexibility”, according to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends Report issued in January. On individual companies’ LinkedIn profiles, references to “flexibility” in posts rose by 343 per cent over the same period.
Short of social experience and long-range planning, Ms Lu found running the small business too difficult and exhausting. She left the agency in 2018 and moved from job to job before becoming a voluntary teacher at a Chinese school in Thailand. To be self-disciplined while working on her own, Ms Lu carefully plans her daily schedule. “I want to manage myself as a company,” she said.
She tried launching a creative design space selling collectibles in Suzhou in 2014, and also a studio in Sichuan for children to learn to draw, sew, and make handicrafts and clay figures. She also launched a creative talent education programme with a partner. All these projects failed, as Ms Lin kept losing money and incurring debts.