Too Poor to Live, Too Poor to Die: China’s Economic Collapse Breaks the Working Class

We can't take it anymore. We go out every day looking for jobs, but no one is hiring. It's driving us insane. In Shenzhen, doing summer temp work only gets you nine yuan an hour. You heard that right. Just nine yuan. Twelve hours in a factory screwing in bolts made me realize something. Back in school, our geography textbook said the Pearl River Delta had cheap labor. I never thought that cheap labor would turn out to be me, ten years later. It's heartbreaking to look back. Is the real economy really this bad now? This is Beijing Road, an entire street. Some shops are counting down to closure, some are already shut. I really want to know, who's actually making money in this society? Ordinary people like us can't even land a decent job. It poured rain today and there was an accident, but I still went to a job interview. They said the salary was 3,500 yuan, six days a week, and holidays aren't even guaranteed. And they said it with a straight face. Now that students are flooding the job market for summer gigs, small electronics factories are back to their old tricks, offering nine yuan an hour. I can't take it anymore. What can you even do with nine yuan an hour? It's useless. I just worked an hour for free again today. That machine broke down faster than the rice pouring out at my house. How bad is the current job market? I used to be a senior software engineer and researcher at a joint lab between China Resources Power and the Tsinghua University Research Institute. But because of unpaid wages, I'm now unemployed. In just over a month, I've sent out more than a thousand applications. Most of them never got any reply. China's economy is getting worse, seemingly with no bottom. Every sector is visibly declining. Many factories are going bankrupt, stores are closing en masse. The wave of unemployment is sweeping across the country, and social media is filled with complaints. Many students, workers, and office employees are posting videos about their painful job search experiences. The phenomenon of graduating into unemployment is everywhere, while job offers are increasingly offering worse compensation. In places like Jiangsu and Shenzhen, hourly wages are down to nine yuan, some even six. People at the bottom of society are on the verge of collapse. I graduated with a master's degree in agricultural studies in 2025. From last year's fall recruitment to this spring, I've been job hunting non-stop. I've submitted countless resumes. I've lost count. But to this day, I still have no offers. Who would have thought even PhDs are now delivering food? Ding Yuanjiao, born in 1985, studied at Tsinghua Peking University and Oxford. After 30 years of At 38, he's unemployed. Despite sending out dozens of resumes, he didn't get a single interview. If he had a better option, he wouldn't be delivering food. You still see students sitting by the roadside at night. Some say they're naive and easily fooled. Like the student in Suzhou yesterday, he paid over 300 yuan for bedding and 100 yuan for insurance, only to receive no job. Are they really dumb? Of course not. They trusted the wrong people. So many students take summer jobs. They haven't really entered society yet. They're still naive. They believe what you say is true. First, you get them to buy bedding. Then come the medical check fees, document fees, all kinds of charges. But after they pay, you don't even give them a job. How can your conscience be at ease? I'm speechless. I know that liberal arts students often don't earn money during internships, but I never expected we'd be exploited like this. I once interned at a company where I worked from morning till night. Every minute, every second was filled with tasks. What were the working hours? Basically, no breaks. It wasn't that I didn't dare slack off. It was that I had no time to slack off. Under such intensity, I even had to work overtime after hours, replying to messages, clearing backlogs. And yet, last month, I only got paid 996 yuan. A whole month of hard work. Just 996. What am I supposed to say? My rent alone is 1,000 yuan a month, not including transportation. As for food delivery, whoever wants to do it can do it. I'm done. In a torrential downpour, they still assign me 4 yuan orders, asking me to deliver water up to the 6th, 7th floor, soaked inside and out. What am I, Mother Nature's pack mule? If you're still planning to seek work far from home, just go to the train stations or airports. Most people aren't heading out to work, they're going home. If life outside was so easy, why would so many people be rushing back? Don't believe the online hype claiming you can easily make 7,000 to 8,000, even 10,000 yuan a month. It's the same everywhere now, 17 to 18 yuan an hour. Ordinary workers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai don't get meals or lodging included. Especially in Zhejiang, it's packed like ants, and electricity, water, rent, and daily expenses are sky high. Think it through carefully before going. Since the real estate market collapsed, construction and repair workers being owed wages has become the norm. But when they try to demand their rights, the authorities crack down. Workers are furious but afraid to speak out. In recent years, wage arrears have become widespread. Some salaries are withheld for months, and earlier payments are sometimes never recovered. But if you don't work, how do you eat? Now construction projects are rare, bosses are struggling, and whether it's doing business or anything else, everything is tough. And for wage earners, it's even harder. Everyone keeps saying they can't find jobs and would rather rot in a rented room than go back to their hometowns. But honestly, you're wrong. There are still opportunities in the countryside. Don't believe it? Come check out the mall in my hometown. Oh, wait, sorry, I forgot. That mall's only half open. Let's go to the big mall then. Here we are. This place is the pride of our county. Let's take a look inside. Huh? Where is everyone? Maybe they're all at the cinema. Let's go check. Strange. No one there either. Maybe they're out on the pedestrian street? That's usually the busiest spot. Let's go see. Still no one. Could it be the heat? Maybe everyone's hiding at home. Hmm. This residential area looks decent. Maybe they all live here now. Let me tell you, don't underestimate food delivery work. In the food delivery world, there's no shortage of talent. It's truly a gathering place of gifted people. You'll find bankrupt business owners, corporate executives, senior white-collar workers, skilled blue-collar workers, master's graduates, PhDs, post-graduates, people who can sing, dance, speak well, everything. Can you believe that? What's the point of studying? I majored in law, but my internship paid just 2,000-3,000 yuan, barely enough to live. Now it's raining. I can't even run a street stall, so I have to deliver food. During the lunch rush, I worked three hours and made just over 100 yuan. My teacher once said, only reading is noble. But now I see, studying feels useless. With strict delivery rules, even being slightly late means losing pay. Mr. Li from Xinzhou, Shanxi, said that foreign capital has withdrawn, exports are collapsing, and even government workers are being owed wages. Ordinary people are under extreme pressure. Some are so poor they can't afford medical treatment, and those who are burdened with home or car loans are even more miserable. China's economy has hit a deadlock. People's lives are truly miserable. It's hard to even look at. One physical store after another, one shopping mall after another, keeps shutting down and going bankrupt. Some store owners can't even withdraw a few hundred yuan. They have no idea how much daily revenue they're making, and they can't even settle a few hundred yuan worth of goods. They're standing on the edge of bankruptcy. Even after selling goods, they can't restock, because suppliers have stopped delivering. If you owe someone money and can't pay, who would dare deliver goods to you? That's the reality now. Many supermarkets are genuinely running at a loss. Don't assume that just because someone runs a supermarket, they must be making a lot of money. Only those in the business know how hard it really is. Around here, many people don't even know if they'll survive to the end of this month. Competition is brutal, and there's bankruptcy everywhere. Hearing about others going under fills me with dread, not because I'm happy they failed, but because I'm scared. How did it come to this? Right now, every street is full of for-transfer signs. It's truly frightening. Every time I hear of another shop closing, my heart sinks and my hands shake. I honestly don't know how much longer my own store can hang on. To be honest, I already see the danger very clearly.