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China had 200 million flexible workers by the end of 2021, indicate data recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics. Women tend to pay more attention to flexible employment, to strike a balance between family and career, added the report that contained the data.

The recently released report, which dealt with women and flexible employment, specifically focused on women aged 20-39 who held a bachelor's degree or better, and who lived in a first- or second-tier city. The purpose of the report was to identify the reasons why women choose flexible work, identify their jobs, and learn what difficulties they face and what needs they have as a result of their flexible employment.

According to the report, the main reasons why women choose flexible employment are: "Combining with ones' own interests," 42 percent; "working freely without constraints," 40 percent; and, "realizing ones' own value," 29 percent.

Nearly 50 percent of women participants are very interested in flexible employment, but they lack clear employment goals. Nearly 70 percent of women participants "don't know what kind of jobs should they choose." More than half of the women worry about earning unstable incomes after they choose flexible employment.

In terms of earnings, 34 percent of women participants in flexible employment earn more than they did when they had stable employment, while 28 percent earn nearly the same amount. Flexible employment does not mean "unstable," as 58 percent of women participants in flexible employment have stable, average monthly earnings. Only four percent of women say their earnings are "very unstable."

The report indicates nearly 70 percent of women in flexible employment are married and have children, so they are more interested in vocational skills training, such as nutrition counseling, family education instruction and childcare development, all of which are beneficial to their children. In addition, women in flexible employment are also interested in media training, such as short-video editing and short-essay writing.

(Women of China English Monthly June 2023 issue)