Stability and Flexibility: Understanding the New Employment Youth in the Digital Era

With development of the digital economy and the related new business forms, a group of people engaged in new occupations and flexible employment have grown rapidly, among which the youth and migrant workers are the key groups. From the theoretical perspectives of the sociology of labor, social stratification and the intergenerational sociology, this paper uses the data of‘the National Survey of the New Employment Youth’and the Chinese Social Survey to investigate the development characteristics, existing difficulties and demands of this emerging group, and tries to propose policy ideas on how to expand the middle income group. The first is the middle-income characteristics. Income of ‘the take away riders’ is significantly higher than that of ordinary migrant workers: according to different indicators, about 60% - 80% belong to the middle-income group. The second is the unstable characteristics. The ‘high income’ is actually based on ‘high intensity’ and ‘low security’ labor, so their career is closely associated with anxiety and short-term. The third is the preference for flexibility. It is shown by data that pursuit of flexibility, and paying attention to the balance between work and life, and work and family is also a typical feature of contemporary Chinese youth. Understanding the values and behaviors of the newly employment youth and even the whole youth group is the key to understanding emerging employment groups and stabilizing employment and ensuring their well-being. Based on the empirical analysis, this paper calls for attention to ‘both employment stability and employment flexibility’, and we should adapt to flexibility and mobility while stabilizing employment and income. This paper suggests innovating and improving labor relations in the new employment and enhancing the social security system, promoting vocational training so as to effectively promote the development of the new employment groups in the digital era.