Youth in Indonesia and China Turn to Side Hustles and Shared Beds Amid Rising Living Costs

In Indonesia, many young workers are taking on multiple jobs to make ends meet as a single salary no longer covers basic expenses. A typical example is Fahmi, who works a full‑time marketing role, freelances as a designer, and spends weekends photographing weddings, all to afford rent, transport and daily needs amid high inflation and soaring housing prices.

In China, 25‑year‑old Winnie Zeng of Wuhan has resorted to sharing a bed with a stranger to cut her rent by 450 yuan per month. Earning about 4,000 yuan a month as a live‑streaming host, she says the arrangement is a matter of survival, allowing her to save roughly three‑quarters of her income for emergencies. Both stories illustrate how stagnant wages and rising living costs are pushing youth in the region toward extreme cost‑saving measures.