Looking for "odd jobs" to earn "daily wages" and working hard to support a family
Visit the gig market, see how gig workers find work, and listen to gig workers talk about the ups and downs
Our reporters Xu Jinyu, Duan Xu, Cheng Di, Xue Chen
They are the "job hunters" in the book "Ordinary World", looking for jobs in the mixed market.
When they are tired, they rush around in the streets, enjoying a hot meal and a sip of wine, which is a rare comfort; when they are free, it means they have to worry about the next job.
For many gig workers living in cities, a person's income is what determines the happiness of the family.
Despite the general lack of professional skills and corresponding guarantees, they still persevered in difficult circumstances for the warmth of their families.
As an important supplement to the labor market, listening to the expectations and voices of gig workers is to listen to the real pulse of social and economic life.
In the warmer season of spring, Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters visited gig markets in many places, got close contact with gig workers, and felt their ups and downs.
Face-to-face is a more reliable way to find a job
Those who stand or sit; those who ride electric bikes and straddle motorcycles; those who have the signs of "Plumbing" and "Scratch Dabai" hanging on their chests, who recommend themselves to everyone; those who play cards together and smoke a cigarette in their spare time self-sufficient...
On the east side of a crossroad in Xingqing District, Yinchuan City, Ningxia, is a spontaneously formed odd-job market that gathers many odd-job workers.
They are generally in their 40s and have a low level of education.
In the market, most employers who recruit workers drive vans, shout first, and then pick people based on their feelings. Workers take the bus to leave early and return late, and most of the wages are paid on the same day.
In an old community close to the market, you can live in a single room for 7 yuan a night or a single room for 10 yuan.
For many gig workers, this is the ideal place to live.
Many gig workers feel that face-to-face is a more reliable way to find a job.
Luo Yahong, a 52-year-old from Pingliang City, Gansu Province, has worked hard in Yinchuan for more than 20 years. He and his wife live in a community next to the market with a monthly rent of 300 yuan and live a frugal life.
Although she is a bricklayer, Luo Yahong is the backbone of the family. As long as the wages are suitable, loading and unloading, cleaning, labor...he will not refuse anyone who comes.
The flexible-minded odd jobs have also begun to connect online and offline to improve the efficiency of job hunting.
Gao Guoyu, who has worked in Changchun City, Jilin Province for 4 years, is from Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province. A light van, a box of plumbing installation tools, and a wear-resistant tooling are his "living" belongings.
The work is quick and the asking price is not high. Gao Guoyu has a good reputation in the gig market, and orders on WeChat keep ringing.
"A few days ago, I drove more than 100 kilometers every day. Wherever I could live, I gave my family 3,000 yuan a month in addition to my own expenses." Gao Guoyu said.
In recent years, labor prices have continued to rise, and the hourly wages of gig workers have also increased.
In some construction sites, the daily wages of manual workers can reach about 300 yuan.
The gig workers contacted by reporters generally earn between 4,000 and 5,000 yuan a month.
Affected by the epidemic, many gig workers said they obviously felt that it was not easy to earn money.
Especially in the places where the epidemic occurred, the amount of labor and labor remuneration are almost always reduced, and it will take some time to recover.
Roger, who is 21 years old in the food delivery industry in Chengdu, can deliver about 3,000 orders a day at his site.
However, if an epidemic occurs, the distribution volume will quickly decrease to 1,500 to 2,000 orders, and the revenue will drop significantly.
Zhang Jun, who has worked odd jobs in Yinchuan for seven or eight years, is mainly engaged in handling and loading and unloading work. He was still on the roadside a few days before the Spring Festival this year. The annual income is almost half of that in the years before the epidemic.”
The slowdown in the real estate industry has also had a significant impact on gig workers.
Gao Guoyu and his colleagues found that there were fewer real estate starts and fewer new house transactions, which directly affected their business volume.
In the past, there were five temporary installers in a bathroom store that Gao Guoyu "backed", but now he is the only one left.
Luo Yahong said that he was not idle during the Spring Festival last year. After the Spring Festival this year, he only earned more than 500 yuan after unloading fruit at the fruit and vegetable market for three days.
"There are fewer new properties opened than in previous years, and there are fewer job opportunities," he said.
Zhao Xue cut hair for 6 yuan at a gig market in Yinchuan City.
Seven or eight years ago, she could earn about 100,000 yuan a year, but now it has dropped a lot.
Zhao Xue said: "There are fewer construction sites, and my husband works one day and three days off. The number of people who come to the gig market is half that of seven or eight years ago, and many people go to Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang."
"Unaccustomed to the soil and water" online, "uneven hot and cold" offline
When interviewing gig workers, the most talked about topic is old-age security, but when it comes to paying for social insurance, they have the mentality of "don't understand the policy", "don't want to spend money", and "talk about it later".
Gao Guoyu and many of the workers around him have the awareness of paying social security and understand the general principles, but they have not taken action for a long time.
On the one hand, it is too troublesome and unwilling to take the initiative to understand the social security policy and connect with the relevant departments; on the other hand, considering that the payment of endowment insurance will reduce the current income, it has been delayed.
This mentality is more common among gig workers.
Another reason for the weak willingness to pay social security is that many gig workers from rural areas have no intention of taking root in cities.
In their opinion, if they can't do anything, they "return to their old age" and live on the land.
Despite working in the city for more than 20 years, Luo Yahong never wanted to integrate into the city.
"The bride price is more than ten thousand yuan, not including the house and car. After a few more years of struggle, after my son gets married, I will go home with my wife to farm the fields and feed the cows. I have completed my mission," he said.
Online platforms are a new trend in recruitment, but for gig workers, the results are often not ideal.
The Donghu District of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province has specially developed a WeChat mini-program called “Help Workers Group” for gig workers, but only a small number of users have been using it since it was launched more than two years ago.
The staff of the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Donghu District said that the gig workers are generally over 40 years old, and many people use old-fashioned phones. Even if some people buy smart phones, they are not very good at using them.
Zhou Chunli (pseudonym) from Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province tried to find a job on a recruitment website, but she was over 50 years old, could not use a computer, and did not meet the platform's recruitment requirements.
Later, she still relied on the street to find work or the WeChat group of migrant workers to find work.
It is worth mentioning that in many areas, the “regular” gig market and roadside gig market run by government departments have shown the phenomenon of “uneven hot and cold”.
The gig market spontaneously formed in Xingqing District, Yinchuan City has many job seekers every day, but the Yinchuan Migrant Worker Service Center not far away has very few job seekers.
Many odd workers said that the service center has a high threshold for recruitment in terms of education and age, and the most important thing is that it does not have "core resources" such as contractors and recruiting bosses.
Occupation worker Wang Keqin said that the service center is inconvenient to park and open late. Foremen and other contractors prefer to go to the roadside odd job market, which is "open all day".
In Donghu District, Nanchang City, a casual worker supermarket has been opened to serve the odd worker group, but the effect is not as good as that of the contractor’s WeChat group.
The reporter's investigation found that most of the migrant population in Yongxi Village, where the casual supermarket is located, is of junior high school education, mainly engaged in construction, transportation and other work. More than 100 contractors are connected through WeChat group.
Liu Xianyuan, from Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, said that when he was looking for a job, he would squat on the side of the road all day.
Now the foreman shouted in the WeChat group, and immediately knew that there was no work to do.
Strengthen social care and feel the temperature of the city
The gig workers themselves have many shortcomings and difficulties.
The respondents believe that all sectors of society should strengthen their care for gig workers, strengthen the connection between labor supply and demand, protect their legitimate rights and interests, and pay attention to their pension needs based on their characteristics and needs, so that they can not only serve the city, but also feel the city's temperature.
First of all, the construction of the gig market must be grounded.
Wang Keqin said that the most important thing in the gig market is to provide employment opportunities.
In addition to basic supporting facilities, the gig market pays more attention to effectiveness.
Instead of shutting down evictions, we should pay attention to the spontaneously formed gig market and provide facilities based on its actual situation.
This can not only spend a small amount of money to do big things, but also reflect the temperature of a city.
Secondly, strengthen the connection between supply and demand of labor, and formulate regulations for the employment of odd workers.
Yao Fengguo, director of the Urban Employment Division of the Changchun Employment Service Bureau, suggested that the gig market should strengthen cooperation with market-oriented job search platforms, and play the roles of intermediaries, hometown associations, and contractors to make the supply and demand of gig workers more accurate.
In addition, we will formulate a guide price for gig employment within the region, enhance the trust between supply and demand, formulate gig employment norms, and provide a reference for labor disputes.
Third, raise the legal and safety awareness of gig workers.
It is normal for gig workers to have no employment contracts, no insurance, and no guarantees, and it is difficult to guarantee their legitimate rights and interests.
Jiang Weibin, chairman of the casual workers' union in Donghu District, Nanchang City, suggested that all localities should organize and plan legal lectures, safety production knowledge sharing and other activities to enhance migrant workers' rights protection and safety production awareness.
By setting up legal aid points and providing labor contract templates for migrant workers, we assist migrant workers in collecting wages and protect their legitimate rights and interests.
Finally, pay attention to the pension needs of gig workers.
The gig workers generally expect that relevant departments can cooperate with commercial insurance companies to provide more types of public welfare pension insurance that can be flexibly paid for their flexible employment methods, so that they can pay by mobile banking, WeChat, etc. Choose from different payment rates and amounts.