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Coco Feng

New data released by Meituan, China’s largest on-demand services provider, showed that its food delivery crews working in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen earn more on average than the local population.
According to the report, Meituan delivery people who work in major cities and meet the company’s minimum work time requirement took home an average monthly pay of 11,000 yuan (US$1,550) in June. Those who work less than the minimum time made 7,354 yuan on average.
Both numbers were higher than Beijing’s per-capita monthly disposable income of 7,180 yuan in the first half of the year.
Amid China’s ongoing economic challenges, more people have turned to flexible employment in the food delivery and ride-hailing sectors to support themselves while looking for full-time jobs.

In the first six months of the year, the number of delivery workers in Beijing soared 50 per cent year on year to 17,000, while the unemployment rate edged down slightly to 4.1 per cent, according to the municipal statistics bureau.
Almost half of the 7.45 million delivery workers hired by Meituan worked fewer than 30 days last year, the report showed – a sign that many viewed their gigs as a transitional job. Only 11 per cent of all Meituan riders accepted orders for more than 260 days last year, the company said.
“It has become normal for people to look for other opportunities while working in food delivery,” Meituan’s research team said.
Under the rising trend of gig employment, the Chinese government has for the past few years rolled out a slew of measures to protect the rights of flexible workers, who are excluded from the labour protections afforded by formal employment.
Gig workers made up about 23 per cent of China’s working population, or around 200 million people, in the past three years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Last year, around 60 per cent of Meituan riders, or 4.5 million of them, were covered by occupational injury insurance, offered via a nationwide pilot programme initiated in 2022 to protect gig workers, company co-founder and CEO Wang Xing said in an internal letter on Tuesday.
Meituan reported last month stronger-than-expected financial results for the June quarter. Revenue rose more than 21 per cent year on year to 82.3 billion yuan, while profit more than doubled to 11 billion yuan.
The company recently expanded its international service Keeta to Al-Kharj, a central city in Saudi Arabia, after making a major foray into Hong Kong in May last year.


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A new report by the company portrays gig employment as an alternative for people in between full-time jobs


A new report by the company portrays gig employment as an alternative for people in between full-time jobs.
