China’s middle-aged jobseekers face age discrimination in unfriendly market as economic, unemployment pressures rise
- Coronavirus worsened the employment woes for middle-aged workers in China, and while unemployment figures for the 25 to 59 age group are low, many face challenges
- Some head to coffee shops to send out résumés, while unemployment pressures are also limiting the ability to have children, adding to China’s population worries
“Mum, remember to come back home early after work,” Mia Fan’s six-year-old daughter says every morning before heading off to primary school.
Fan would normally respond with a nod and a smile before leaving her house around 8.30am in a scene replicated in a lot of households as parents head out for work.
But for Fan, after being laid off from her job as an administrator in the financial industry in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in early May, the 35-year-old takes her own milk or water to a nearby Starbucks.
She spends the morning sending out résumés before changing to a nearby bookstore in the afternoon to read and paint.
I am afraid that lying at home all day may leave a negative impression on my daughter
Imitating her old work routine to hide her situation from her parents-in-law, who live with Fan, her daughter and her husband, she returns home at around 5.30pm having first wandered around a bustling night market.
“This has almost become my fixed daily routine,” said Fan, who occasionally skips breakfast at home to appear to be running late for work.
