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As lay-offs hit, China’s unemployed find sanctuary in Communist Party centres
Chinese jobseekers use free office space to establish routines and hide their employment status from families while looking for work
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He Huifengin Guangdong
Most mornings, Joey Zhang can be found in an unusual setting for young professionals: with her laptop open and her bag placed beside her chair, she sits in a Communist Party community service centre in Guangzhou – a facility traditionally occupied by retirees and custodial workers when it isn’t sitting empty.
About four months ago, Zhang worked as a brand planner at a private advertising company and spent her mornings in a high-rise office. Then came a round of lay-offs after her employer began cutting staff, as artificial intelligence increasingly replaced parts of marketing and brand planning work, leaving her among those let go.
Suddenly unemployed, Zhang, now in her 30s, found herself struggling in a slowing job market with long, often anxious days. At first, she tried using cafes to job hunt. But the extensive search quickly left her with anxiety over her choice of haven.
“At Starbucks, a 30-yuan coffee only buys you a few hours of space,” she said. “I had to keep a white-collar look just to justify sitting there and I didn’t feel comfortable sitting there too long with staff and other people around me. It felt awkward.”
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