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Struggling with second jobs
By Xu Wenwen |
August 16, 2010, Monday
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EVERYBODY wants more these days - nicer clothes, a car, a home - but most people have champagne tastes and beer pocketbooks. Some can barely get by, so they take second jobs. Xu Wenwen reports.
Felix Shi writes a math formula on the blackboard and explains it to the students, but he is not a schoolteacher. He's a software test engineer in a middle-sized Hangzhou company and he has taken a second job.
Shi is a 26-year-old part-time teacher at a weekend school where students earn their high school certificates.
He needs the money. He just got married two weeks ago and has to earn as much as he can for his family.
"My current priority is to buy a house," says Shi.
There are many people like Shi in China where aspirations are high and so are prices, especially for housing in top-tier cities. White-collar workers, many earning a few thousand yuan a month, are struggling, as are migrant workers.
Though earning more than factory workers, office workers require, or society tells them they require, nice clothes, good cars and comfortable houses.
Since their salary cannot meet their needs, they take part-time jobs.
According to a latest survey, among 3,092 respondents, 83.8 percent want to take a second job and only 7.4 percent said they would never consider additional work. The survey initiated by the investigative department of China Youth Daily was conducted by Qsinghua Media Survey Lab.
There's a name for two-job workers, "arubaito" in Japanese, which has become 'alu zu' in Taiwan and now on the Chinese mainland.
"Taking a part-time job is a temporary emergency measure to cope with economic pressure," says sociology Professor Zhang Lei of Zhejiang University of Technology, "because a reasonable job with good pay and prospects is not always available."
Yolanda Zhao from Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, works as a marketing specialist in an English-teaching school, but she can hardly save anything since she graduated two years ago.
She earns around 3,000 yuan (US$441.51), an average for a fresh grad.
After covering rent, utilities, food, transport, mobile phone and other essentials, she only has around one-third left and buying some nice clothes uses that up.
Last year she hosted a bilingual wedding party, since she is fluent in English, and later was inspired to become a part-time bilingual emcee, earning around 800 yuan for a two-hour show.
Meanwhile, she submits her resume to several translation companies to ask if they need a part-time English translator.
"Every morning, I make up, suit up and go to work. People call me 'white collar,' but I know that I need one more good job to live comfortably," says Zhao.
Many non-local office workers have the same problem and lack a sense of security. Many of them take second jobs.
"Many companies hire part-time workers to save money, but many people are willing to handle at least two jobs," says Professor Zhang.
While some "alu zu" work for a second employer, some people start their own ventures, which are risky but of high returns.
As Hangzhou is the headquarters of Taobao.com, China's biggest online shopping site, many 'alu zu' run online stores.
One of them is 27-year-old Wang Yitian, whose regular job is computer technician at a mall. But on Taobao he sells computer components. He works in his small room, naked to the waist in the steaming heat. His AC is broken.
When he gets off work, Wang is busy collecting purchasing information, packing goods and preparing express deliveries.
"I'm not only battling housing prices, but also commodity prices and the hot weather as well," he says. "And I'm not alone. There are many people like me."
As many jobs can be done through the Internet, holding two jobs is increasingly common. It's not hard to understand why people give up evenings and weekends for work.
According to the Zhejiang Academy of Social Science's research department, the annual income of a Zhejiang middle-income people ranges from 22,000 yuan to 57,000 yuan.
But in urban Hangzhou, the average price for 1 square meter of housing is more than 15,000 yuan, which means a middle-sized house costs around 1 million yuan.
Thus, even a medium-income people earning 57,000 yuan, the high end of the range, will have to spend more than 17 years to buy a house - if they don't buy anything else.
The situation is similar nationwide. As the economy is booming, expectations rise, and so does stress over acquiring more things. So we see more 'alu zu.'
Felix Shi writes a math formula on the blackboard and explains it to the students, but he is not a schoolteacher. He's a software test engineer in a middle-sized Hangzhou company and he has taken a second job.
Shi is a 26-year-old part-time teacher at a weekend school where students earn their high school certificates.
He needs the money. He just got married two weeks ago and has to earn as much as he can for his family.
"My current priority is to buy a house," says Shi.
There are many people like Shi in China where aspirations are high and so are prices, especially for housing in top-tier cities. White-collar workers, many earning a few thousand yuan a month, are struggling, as are migrant workers.
Though earning more than factory workers, office workers require, or society tells them they require, nice clothes, good cars and comfortable houses.
Since their salary cannot meet their needs, they take part-time jobs.
According to a latest survey, among 3,092 respondents, 83.8 percent want to take a second job and only 7.4 percent said they would never consider additional work. The survey initiated by the investigative department of China Youth Daily was conducted by Qsinghua Media Survey Lab.
There's a name for two-job workers, "arubaito" in Japanese, which has become 'alu zu' in Taiwan and now on the Chinese mainland.
"Taking a part-time job is a temporary emergency measure to cope with economic pressure," says sociology Professor Zhang Lei of Zhejiang University of Technology, "because a reasonable job with good pay and prospects is not always available."
Yolanda Zhao from Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, works as a marketing specialist in an English-teaching school, but she can hardly save anything since she graduated two years ago.
She earns around 3,000 yuan (US$441.51), an average for a fresh grad.
After covering rent, utilities, food, transport, mobile phone and other essentials, she only has around one-third left and buying some nice clothes uses that up.
Last year she hosted a bilingual wedding party, since she is fluent in English, and later was inspired to become a part-time bilingual emcee, earning around 800 yuan for a two-hour show.
Meanwhile, she submits her resume to several translation companies to ask if they need a part-time English translator.
"Every morning, I make up, suit up and go to work. People call me 'white collar,' but I know that I need one more good job to live comfortably," says Zhao.
Many non-local office workers have the same problem and lack a sense of security. Many of them take second jobs.
"Many companies hire part-time workers to save money, but many people are willing to handle at least two jobs," says Professor Zhang.
While some "alu zu" work for a second employer, some people start their own ventures, which are risky but of high returns.
As Hangzhou is the headquarters of Taobao.com, China's biggest online shopping site, many 'alu zu' run online stores.
One of them is 27-year-old Wang Yitian, whose regular job is computer technician at a mall. But on Taobao he sells computer components. He works in his small room, naked to the waist in the steaming heat. His AC is broken.
When he gets off work, Wang is busy collecting purchasing information, packing goods and preparing express deliveries.
"I'm not only battling housing prices, but also commodity prices and the hot weather as well," he says. "And I'm not alone. There are many people like me."
As many jobs can be done through the Internet, holding two jobs is increasingly common. It's not hard to understand why people give up evenings and weekends for work.
According to the Zhejiang Academy of Social Science's research department, the annual income of a Zhejiang middle-income people ranges from 22,000 yuan to 57,000 yuan.
But in urban Hangzhou, the average price for 1 square meter of housing is more than 15,000 yuan, which means a middle-sized house costs around 1 million yuan.
Thus, even a medium-income people earning 57,000 yuan, the high end of the range, will have to spend more than 17 years to buy a house - if they don't buy anything else.
The situation is similar nationwide. As the economy is booming, expectations rise, and so does stress over acquiring more things. So we see more 'alu zu.'
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