Flexible employment has become a new engine for economic growth and has effectively offset the shortage of jobs caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, an industry study finds.

Facing an urgent shortage of manpower in the post-epidemic era, recruiting full-time employees is no longer the only choice for enterprises, online recruiter zhaopin.com said.

According to its survey results, more than half of enterprises have chosen to recruit part-time and temporary employees and over a quarter of companies borrow employees from other enterprises.

Among the various new forms of flexible employment, the sharing economy, livestreaming economy and digital economy have made outstanding contributions.

In the second quarter of this year, livestreaming platforms led the demand for flexible talent recruitment with a staggering growth rate of 347.8 percent, according to Zhaopin.

Knowledge services, self-media and life-related distribution service sectors increased recruitment by 75.6 percent, 65.1 percent and 35.4 percent respectively.

At the same time, nearly 60 percent of respondents said that flexible employment work suits their skills.

However, most professionals (71 percent) say they have only thought about flexible work as an option but have not taken part in any such employment, the survey finds.