In mainland China, the job market’s “glass ceiling” has come down early to the age of 35. Becoming unemployed at 35 causes their once decent life to crumble instantly. Despite sending out hundreds of resumes, there is little response; and when they manage to secure an interview, the interviewers always hint at “you’re too old for your age”. This is not just an individual’s struggle, but a challenge handed to middle-aged people by the era, a “difficult exam paper”.
According to the traditional Chinese saying of “establishing oneself at thirty”, 35 years old is considered the prime of one’s life. Yet nowadays, 35 has become a threshold for job seekers.
A survey conducted by China Talent Network showed that about 86% of job seekers over the age of 35 among approximately 700 online users experienced difficulties in job hunting due to their age. Especially in industries like IT and advertising, many employers set the age limit for frontline employees at around 35.
Is 35 really a hurdle in the workplace? A Shenzhen blogger known as “Old Horse” affirmed this question based on his own experience. Recently, this former AI project director stated, “I was laid off at the age of 35. Today, I went for interviews at three companies, and without exception, I was rejected because I was considered too old. One of the companies was recommended by a friend, but the interviewer, a post-00s generation, directly told me that if not for the referral, they wouldn’t have considered my age of 35.” Faced with these words, “Old Horse” found it deeply ironic, saying, “I used to be an AI project director myself, never thought I would now be competing with post-00s professionals.”
Living in a city like Shenzhen with high living costs and intense competition, “Old Horse” bears the burden of mortgages and car loans and deeply understands the cruelty of the midlife crisis at the age of 35. After being laid off, he has been working as a self-media blogger, hoping to help more people understand self-media through sharing his own experiences.
The shadow of middle-aged unemployment is looming over elites in various industries. Blogger “Lao Ge” recently mentioned being a programmer, holding a bachelor’s degree from Jilin University and a master’s degree from Beihang University. He was laid off in April last year. He shared the experience of a good friend and former colleague who was also laid off recently. “When I was laid off in April last year, he was at his peak because he was a cornerstone of the company with a team under him. Unexpectedly, he too got laid off. I reckon even he never thought it would happen to him. So, for a moment, he couldn’t accept it. All those who got laid off face a common problem—the pressure from family. His wife doesn’t work and is a full-time homemaker. His parents-in-law have been living at his place for a long time and are unemployed. He has to support a whole household, how will he get through the coming days?”
Financial professional “Uncle Tan” recently stated on social media that professionals around the age of 40 are disappearing in batches. He needed to contact a former colleague whom he hadn’t seen for years for a project. Looking through the colleague’s social media, he found it frozen three years ago, as if vanished from the world. After private messaging him, he learned that his colleague had left the financial sector long ago, which is why Uncle Tan couldn’t assist this time.
“I asked where he is working now and he was speechless for a while before telling me that he’s completely out of the professional arena. So, I quickly comforted him and ended the conversation.”
Uncle Tan lamented that he has seen this situation too often in recent years. Last year, I attended a reunion of college classmates, all around forty years old, and noticed a pattern. Those attending the gathering were employed, but when it came to those who were absent, the unanimous response was surprisingly similar: not sure, haven’t seen any updates on social media for a long time, no contact either.
He noted that over the past couple of years, he has felt increasingly stronger that many middle-aged professionals of his age have disappeared in groups. Once, my friends were all professionals, and my social media was filled with work-related information, like working overtime today, meeting up, discussing projects, traveling for business trips to different cities, everyone was bustling in their jobs. But hitting forty, suddenly I realized, the buzz in my social circle seemed to have pressed the pause button, and these career elites quietly “lurked in the folds of life”.
A common consensus among middle-aged unemployed individuals is that finding a new job after losing one is extremely challenging. The main reasons include not being able to compete with younger individuals in terms of physical endurance, their higher salary demands creating cost pressures for employers, and due to their deep expertise and networks, companies worry about managing them and fear they may take away customers. These three-fold challenges render middle-aged individuals highly uncompetitive in the job market.
Blogger “Traveler Talks About Various Things” recently shared his own experience of being unemployed in middle age and transitioning into self-media in a self-media program, attracting a large number of contacts from other middle-aged people in the same situation. He found that many of them were in their early forties, coming from various industries like platform planning, architecture, and education. They sought advice from him on the process of doing self-media and what other job options were available. Among them were unemployed individuals who had been searching for jobs for three to four months without success.
He learned that although doing self-media is a choice for many middle-aged unemployed individuals, very few can persist and succeed in it. Many people, after trying for four or five months, had to give up due to the pressures of making a living and went back to searching for jobs.
Faced with the harsh reality of unemployment, many middle-aged individuals choose to keep it hidden from their families for various reasons. Hence, the once humorous concept of the “Pretending to Work Limited Company” that gained popularity on social media is no longer just a joke but has become a widespread phenomenon, with numerous “Pretending to Work National Branches” sprouting up across the country, from first-tier cities to smaller towns. Some individuals even use the excuse of being on a business trip to rent a place outside, just to maintain their dignity.
Whether on platforms like Xiaohongshu, Weibo, or Xianyu, searching for the keywords “pretend to work” reveals numerous recruitment posts for these pretend-to-work companies.
According to a report in “Sanlian Life Week”, in mainland China, many well-dressed individuals with laptops can be spotted at KFC outlets, libraries, park benches, self-study rooms, and even in cars parked on the roadside. However, their screens are not filled with work documents but with games, TV shows, resumes in editing, or nothing at all, as they simply pretend to be working in front of their screens.
In the Douban group “Small-scale Exchange Organization for Resigned Masses”, many young people pretending to work gather and frequently discuss that pretending to work also requires skills. Some have even developed “Pretend to Work Strategies”.
In a post’s comments section, a 90s generation guy named Xiao C from Guangzhou shared his experience of persistently visiting the library to study during his six-month unemployment period. He said, “For about half a year, I kept going to the library to study as if I were going to work during weekdays.”
Xiao C told Surprised Institute that he chose to pretend to work mainly because he didn’t want his parents at home to worry. “If my parents knew I was unemployed, they would be very concerned and it would cause me a lot of trouble and psychological pressure. If they didn’t know, I would be more relaxed, and I only told them after finding a new job.” Until January this year, his parents didn’t even know he had been unemployed for more than half a year.
In addition to the Pretending to Work companies, many individuals shared their experiences of pretending to work in places like libraries. In fact, study rooms, libraries, and coffee shops have become “mobile workstations” for many pretending-to-work individuals.
It is worth noting that the employment chill not only affects middle-aged individuals. Nowadays, recent college graduates struggling to find jobs has become the norm.
Blogger “Traveler Talks About Various Things” mentioned that recently, a university professor from Shanghai contacted him, hoping to have dinner with him along with two graduating college students to discuss the situation of doing self-media and see if there were opportunities for his students in this field. The professor revealed that his students, especially those majoring in the humanities, are finding it particularly challenging to secure employment.
This shows that the dire situation of employment is no longer exclusive to the middle-aged group but also engulfs recent college graduates. This indicates that the wave of unemployment triggered by the economic downturn is sweeping through various age groups and industries with its widespread and profound impact.