EXHAUSTING, DEHUMANISING, ALIENATING
Hu’s low-wage jobs as an overnight worker at a logistics warehouse and a delivery driver were often exhausting, dehumanising, and alienating – experiences that gig workers in other countries will no doubt recognise. But the difference in China is the sheer scale of size and competition. Everything is just much bigger, faster, and more ruthless.
Some of Hu’s most compelling insights from his three years in the industry were about going to the bathroom. Or, rather, not going. During his time in the packaging facility, he worked 12-hour overnight shifts. The warehouse was so hot that the author “sweated so much I never once needed to pee while on shift.”
As a driver in Beijing, Hu did occasionally relieve himself. But because time was money, he began calculating whether going to the toilet was worthwhile from a financial perspective. Each idle minute costs seven US cents, a consequential amount given he was working six days a week, aiming to make US$1,000 a month.
Hu stopped doing delivery work at the end of 2019 after his most generous employer folded. Since then, the national employment picture has become more precarious.
Gerard DiPippo, an associate director at the RAND China Research Center, estimated that the 12.5 million jobs that were created in the year through June undershot the pre-pandemic trajectory by about 1.6 million.
Online data has shown a decline in new job postings, he said, while part-time and gig roles have become more prevalent. About 15 million have left the construction industry over a decade with many landing in the services sector, which includes ad-hoc delivery work.
Source: CNA
