Jobseekers over 35 – especially men – find it tough as slowdown bites in China’s manufacturing hub

The balance of power between capital and labour is shifting back towards the former in China’s troubled manufacturing heartland as the economic slowdown wipes out jobs faster than the labour supply falls.

Many factories in the Pearl River Delta are reverting to past practice of hiring only young, preferably female, workers, a different approach from China’s post-stimulus years when even men in their 40s or 50s were in demand.

In many recruitment flyers posted on walls, electricity poles and bulletin boards in Changan, a small town in Dongguan, the maximum age requirement is 35, and another less explicit preference is for women, who are regarded as less rebellious than men.

The shifting job-hunting landscape is particularly hard for people like Huang Li.

Huang, from a village in Guangxi and approaching 35, was leaning against a pool table in a public park and drinking a can of beer during a break from job hunting. Wiping sweat from his face with the bottom of his shirt, Huang said he lost his previous job at a Dongguan lamp factory last year when the boss “ran away” – a term describing a factory owner who suddenly disappears to avoid debts and salary payments.