Coronavirus: China seeks solution to unemployment crisis with flexible jobs
- Many struggling workers in China are taking part-time jobs such as street vending and construction to make ends meet
- When winter comes, many outdoor jobs in the nation’s colder regions will disappear, putting low- and medium-income groups at risk
In June, Qiu Xiaogang decided to close his Happy Noodle Shop near an expressway in northern China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region and set up a street food stand to sell grilled meat skewers.
It was the second time this year that Qiu had been forced to close his shop. The first was during a coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdown. To make ends meet then, he did a short stint at a construction site, moving bricks for about 200 yuan (US$29) a day.
After the lockdown ended in May, he returned to his shop, but his income was too small to make up for the 60,000 yuan (US$8,663) he had lost from the shop’s closure.
In the past, street vendors tended to operate under the central government’s radar, but in the months since the coronavirus emerged, they have become key components in an unstable job market.
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Beijing’s snub puts street vendors on wrong side of regulations again
The central government’s latest strategy to ease unemployment pressure lies in encouraging people to set up their own small shops, creating numerous part-time jobs in sectors such as retail, construction, community service and online entertainment.
