Why More Chinese Workers Are Settling For Less Pay

For many people in China these days, getting a job a good one that pays enough is.

- Stella Yifan Xie

With the economy in a funk and deflation settling in, many people are having to settle for jobs beneath their skill levels, often with reduced pay. That is making it harder to make ends meet, depressing consumer spending and leaving many people frustrated in careers they fear are going nowhere.

In Beijing, Kang Deqiang spent much of the past two decades working as a marketing executive for Chinese media firms, until his last employer, a media outlet focused on railroad travel, went out of business during the pandemic.

Now he manages a dormitory building at a local college, a job that pays only about $500 a month after taxes-about 20% of what he earned at his peak. He also moonlights at a coffee shop in the evenings for about $3.80 per hour.

He says he took the dormitory job in September because he has a $770-a-month mortgage, and had been searching for full-time work for months without success. At least his commute is shorter, he said.

"There isn't anybody who doesn't like a high-paying job. But the economy is going downhill. I have to settle for the next best thing," said Kang, who is 41.

Many employers that used to hire aggressively are in retreat. The property market is in a multiyear downturn, exports are weak, and local governments are saddled with debt. Government crackdowns on the private sector have led many companies to rein in risktaking, while foreign firms, spooked by geopolitical tensions, are cutting investment in China.

Officially, the unemployment rate in Chinese cities was 5.1% in December. While that is higher than the U.S. unemployment rate of 3.7%, it is still relatively low, and better than the full-year average rate of 5.6% in 2022.

However, economists have long raised questions about China's official unemployment report, which only covers urban dwellers, and counts anyone who works an hour or more in a week as fully employed.