 "Why unemployed Chinese youth are paying to pretend to have jobs")
Many young people in China are getting up in the morning, dressing up and going to their “offices”. However, they are not being paid to be there or expected to show results.
These people are actually paying companies to pretend to work. This unique trend is helping the Chinese youth to hide the fact that they are unemployed from their families.
Let’s take a closer look.
Rise of ‘pretend to work’ trend in China
China is witnessing a surge in companies offering a “pretend to work” service.
People are paying a daily fee of 30 and 50 yuan (approximately Rs 366 and 611) to these companies, which provide them desks, Wi-Fi, coffee, lunch, and an atmosphere mimicking a work environment, as per an EL PAÍS report.
The daily fees also include lunch, snacks and drinks sometimes.
Those availing the services can also engage in staged supervisory rounds, deal with fake managers and even symbolic “worker uprisings”.
This trend has become popular among young, unemployed adults in China.
The advertisements of such companies have been circulating in Chengdu and Hangzhou. These firms have also cropped up in other major cities across China, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Kunming.
‘Escapism’ or stress buster?
As it becomes difficult to bag jobs amid China’s sluggish economy and job market, the “pretend to work” trend is attracting the youth.
They prefer to pay to go to the office rather than being stuck at home. The young Chinese are also hiding their joblessness from their close ones to avoid judgement.
Shui Zhou, whose food business venture failed last year, started paying 30 yuan daily to a firm called Pretend To Work Company, in the city of Dongguan, 114 km north of Hong Kong. The 30-year-old is working with five “colleagues” there, reported BBC.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“I feel very happy. It’s like we’re working together as a group,” Zhou said.
The attendees are not sitting idly at these mock-up offices. Instead, they are utilising their time to find real jobs, learn new skills or even plan their own start-up businesses.
Zonghua, who did not divulge her real name, has been shelling out a monthly fee of 400 yuan (Rs 4884.66) to use a comfortable space to spend her day and apply for jobs. She put in her papers in the spring of 2024 for a “more stable life”, as per the EL PAÍS report.
Feiyu (a pseudonym), the owner of the Pretend To Work Company in Dongguan, told BBC, “What I’m selling isn’t a workstation, but the dignity of not being a useless person.”
He recalled being unemployed himself in the past after his previous retail business shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I was very depressed and a bit self-destructive. You wanted to turn the tide, but you were powerless,” he said.
In April this year, Feiyu started advertising Pretend To Work, with his workstations getting full within a month.
Officially, these workers are known as “flexible employment professionals”, which also includes ride-hailing and trucker drivers.
Feiyu said, as per BBC, that 40 per cent of customers are recent university graduates who have to furnish proof of internship experience to their former tutors. Some are there to ease pressure from their families.
The other 60 per cent are freelancers, including those working for big ecommerce firms, and cyberspace writers.
The trend has gained attention on mainland China’s social media, with related topics amassing over 100 million (10 crore) views, reported South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Xiaohongshu, China’s version of Instagram, is full of ads for “pretend-to-work companies”.
An online user said this helps “ease psychological pressure” on the unemployed.
However, another user criticised the trend for “promoting escapism”, arguing it obstructs the process of looking for a new job.
China’s high unemployment
Chinese youth unemployment is at more than 14 per cent. It had reached a high of 21.3 per cent for the 16-24 age group in June 2023. However, it has since fallen, touching 15.8 per cent in April this year.
The drop came after the Chinese government revised the method of calculation to exclude students.
Dr Biao Xiang, director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany, told BBC that China’s pretending to work trend arises from a “sense of frustration and powerlessness” regarding a lack of job opportunities.
“Pretending to work is a shell that young people find for themselves, creating a slight distance from mainstream society and giving themselves a little space.”
In China, being jobless is a social stigma, with many viewing it as a personal failure.
Speaking to SCMP, Zhang Yong, a social work professor at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, said: “Society places a lot of pressure on people to succeed, and young adults sometimes set their job expectations too high. The sudden shock of losing a job can lead to depression.”
He advised the unemployed to seek professional counselling instead of keeping their struggles under wraps.
“They need to take an honest look at their situation, understand the job market, be open with their families and build a healthier mindset about career choices,” Zhang added.
While it is popular now, will the “pretend to work” trend last in China? Only time will tell.
With inputs from agencies
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