Digital economy helps stay-at-home mothers return to work

The digital economy is helping stay-at-home mothers return to work, China Youth Daily app reported on Tuesday.

Stay-at-home mothers' advantages in communication, connection and creativity make them more suitable for the jobs in the fields of digital trade, e-commerce and live content creation, said Li Yongjian, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The growing digital economy has created more job opportunities for stay-at-home mothers.

Li believes that digital economy's development has lowered the threshold for entrepreneurship, which enables stay-at-home mothers to have the ability to access information so that they can find entrepreneurial job opportunities quickly.

At the same time, digital technology has also provided a large number of remote work opportunities, allowing stay-at-home mothers to balance family and career.

Digital platforms created about 240 million net jobs in China in 2021, accounting for 27 percent of the total labor force, according to a research report "2023 Frontiers of China's Digital Economy: Platforms and High-quality Full Employment".

Digital economy-related occupations, such as digital managers and Internet of Things installation and commissioning personnel, account for a very high proportion in the 56 new occupations released in four batches from 2019 to 2022.

Li called for policies to encourage stay-at-home mothers to rely on digital economy platforms to innovate and start businesses.

The government should work with digital platforms to enhance vocational skills training to cope with rapid job changes and enable stay-at-home mothers to adapt to changes in the workplace.

The government should also strengthen the construction of a job security system for stay-at-home mothers in view of flexible employment forms, according to Li.