The rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) is profoundly reshaping how people work and live. In China, the proliferation of new business models supported by internet platforms has given rise to vast new employment groups. These workers are not only an important component of the socialist workforce, but also an indispensable force in socioeconomic development.

New employment groups, represented by food delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers, online streamers, and other platform workers have generated new demand in sectors including catering, transportation, and e-commerce, expanding consumption and stimulating economic vitality. At the same time, their extensive movement through streets and neighborhoods gives them the potential to become an emerging force in primary-level social governance.

Internal diversity, complexity overlooked

Against this backdrop, academic research on new employment groups has flourished. Existing studies have largely concentrated on three areas: labor control and digital exploitation by platform companies, employment quality and the protection of workers’ rights, and the pathways and mechanisms through which Party engagement can integrate these groups into primary-level governance.

Regrettably, much of this research overlooks the diversity and complexity within new employment groups, reinforcing a tendency to portray them primarily as marginalized or vulnerable. Excessive emphasis on such narratives makes it more difficult to develop a comprehensive and objective understanding of their lived realities.

New employment groups encompass a wide variety of occupations, with considerable differences even among the commonly recognized “five key groups:” couriers, online delivery workers, truck drivers, ride-hailing drivers, and online streamers. Unlike the other four groups, for example, online streamers tend to have higher levels of education. Some are prominent “top-tier streamers” with enormous followings, considerable agenda-setting power, and substantial social influence. Significant differences even exist within individual occupational categories. Among ride-hailing workers, for example, premium-service drivers and ordinary ride-hailing drivers differ markedly in their earnings, employment conditions, and working methods.

According to the National Survey of Young People in New Employment, jointly conducted by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, delivery riders aged 18–45 reported an average job satisfaction score of 7.1, indicating a relatively high degree of satisfaction. Compared with data from the Chinese Social Survey, their score was lower only than that of commercial-sector employees, at 7.3. It was equal to that of service-sector workers and higher than the scores reported by production workers, transportation workers, and related occupational groups, at 6.7, as well as workers in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, and water conservancy, at 6.6.

Among the individual dimensions surveyed, delivery riders gave the highest ratings to their “relationships with supervisors and colleagues” and “degree of freedom at work.” Other large-scale social surveys have likewise found that many riders enter platform-based employment precisely because they value its relatively high earnings, uncomplicated workplace relationships, and greater flexibility.

In recent years, stronger Party and government efforts for new employment groups have brought clear improvements in both rights protection and social integration. First, platform companies have begun implementing social insurance and occupational injury protection schemes. Many leading platforms have pledged to cover 50% of insurance contributions for eligible riders who choose to participate in social insurance programs.

Second, consultations over algorithmic management have begun to produce tangible results. Food delivery platforms are gradually eliminating financial penalties for late deliveries and incorporating real-time road conditions into route planning. Ride-hailing platforms, meanwhile, have pledged to reduce commission rates and comprehensively upgrade their fatigue-prevention rules.

Finally, as official measures supporting new employment groups have been put into practice, these workers can obtain formal support in areas such as healthcare, their children’s education, skills training, and career development by participating in primary-level governance. Such support has strengthened their integration into urban society and enhanced their sense of self-worth.

More comprehensive, objective understanding needed

Future research on new employment groups should move beyond a singular narrative of marginalization and develop a fuller, more objective understanding of these workers. In particular, three key areas call for deeper and more sustained inquiry.

Comparative studies across new employment groups: Dedicated large-scale sample surveys and online big data can be used to examine differences among occupational categories, particularly between “life service-oriented” workers and those engaged in “cultural and creative-oriented” forms of employment.

Agency of new employment groups: Research should first move beyond the binary narrative of “control versus resistance” that often frames relations between platform algorithms and workers. It should also engage more deeply with workers’ everyday life worlds and pay closer attention to their agency in primary-level governance. This includes examining how new employment groups draw on formal support to become “reorganized” and participate actively in primary-level social governance.

Impact of digital–intelligent technologies on workers: As these technologies develop, the boundaries between work and personal life are becoming increasingly blurred for almost all workers. Expanding research on this issue would help dispel the public perception of new employment groups as fundamentally separate or “other.”

Han Zixu is from the Party School of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC (Jiangsu Academy of Governance). Wang Jinshui is from the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.