China’s youngest millennials told they’re too old for jobs, and elder Gen Z workers are next

Name: Chinese reluctant to have children as China reports first population fall in 61 years
Uploaded: 2023-02-10T03:00:10.000Z
Duration: 2 min 14 s
Description: Chinese reluctant to have children as China reports first population fall in 61 years

Pervasive ageism is no secret in China, where it remains legal, but the outcry is approaching a deafening crescendo as the situation appears to be worsening

With many companies still struggling to survive in China’s post-pandemic climate, even 27-year-olds may be seen as risky hires, and those over 30 need not apply

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Jobseekers attend a bustling employment fair in China’s Shaanxi province on Tuesday. Photo: Xinhua

Mia Nurmamat

Published: 11:00am, 10 Feb 2023Updated: 1:51am, 7 Mar 2023

The writing on the wall is abundantly clear, brazenly spelled out with no-nonsense language in the job posting for a Chinese automotive services firm in Sichuan province.

“The average age of the team should be less than 30 years old,” states the notice seeking to fill a vacant human resources position.

China’s pervasive ageism in employment is nothing new. And it’s certainly no secret. But signs could be suggesting that it is getting even worse. Traditionally, it starts rearing its head in the workplace at around the age of 35, earlier than the international average, according to studies in recent years.

But now even the youngest of China’s millennial jobseekers say they are facing age-related obstacles in their career paths amid fierce competition from an ever-growing labour pool of fresh university graduates. And to make matters worse, companies – battered by China’s disruptive and economically crippling zero-Covid policy that lasted nearly three years – are widely looking to reduce labour costs.

Ms Yang, a 31-year-old living in Shanghai, says she has received almost no responses from the more than 100 firms to which she has applied since last month. With a master’s degree in social science, she is seeking work in the internet industry.

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Chinese reluctant to have children as China reports first population fall in 61 years

Declining to give her full name out of fear that it could further harm her ability to find a job, Yang said a number of companies are explicitly requiring candidates to be under the age of 30, and for some that number has dropped to 27.

This is roughly the age of the youngest millennials – meaning that, in the next year or two, the elder members of Generation Z could find that they’re already aged out of some jobs in China.