Bao Zhang began driving for a Chinese ride-hailing app this year after losing his job as a software tester and says the weak job market gives him little hope of returning to the tech sector.

China's gig economy is set to engage 320 million workers by 2026 amid job scarcity. GDP growth below 1% priced at 0.2% YES, growth between 5% and 6% at 16.5% YE.

His story is increasingly common in China, where tens of millions are shifting from formal employment into the gig economy as meagre unemployment insurance, record numbers of…