China: Efforts to eliminate age discrimination in recruitment

(LĐXH) - The Chinese government has launched initiatives to address age discrimination in recruitment activities.

Project manager David Li, 34, from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, has not been promoted after five years at a tech company. This means the company does not value him. His job may be at risk.

Fear of losing his job led him to regularly work 12-hour days in 2024 to prove to his superiors that he was still capable of doing overtime. On weekends, he was always available to take calls and handle unexpected work requests such as creating presentation slides.

In China, after the age of 35, many workers will have difficulty finding jobs due to age discrimination. (Photo: AFP).

Li is not the only one feeling anxious about his job. The insecurity of Chinese workers over the age of 35 is growing as the problem of “35 curse” – age discrimination in hiring – becomes more serious amid the economic slowdown.

The Chinese government is taking the lead in addressing employers' age-biased hiring policies by raising the age limit for civil service positions from 35 to 40, through adjusting the age for taking the civil service exam.

While career plateaus in China happen quite early, at age 35, this scenario is not the case in countries like Singapore, where the average age at which careers start to plateau is 48, according to a 2020 survey by recruitment firm Randstad.

In October 2024, the Chinese government announced that it would raise the age limit from 35 to 40 for those taking the national civil service exam to join central government agencies.

Analysts say the change in the age limit for civil service exams is also a move to prepare the Chinese government to accept workers affected by employers' age policies and the slowing economy.

The move also sends a message to private companies, encouraging them to raise age limits for hiring.

The anxiety about turning 35 has become so widespread that in 2023, a temple in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, was criticized for only accepting monks under the age of 35.

Dr. Jane Du, a researcher at the Soas China Institute in London (UK), commented that Chinese policymakers are trying to attract workers over 35 years old as a temporary solution.

“If the ‘curse of 35’ continues amid mass layoffs due to the economic slowdown and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, it may become increasingly difficult for experienced or well-trained workers to re-enter the labor market after long-term job losses,” she said.

“China may also face a labor shortage in the coming years due to its declining population. This highlights the need to maintain the efficiency and contribution of the current workforce,” Du added.

The government has raised the retirement age from 60 to 63 for men, effective from January this year. For women working in offices, the retirement age has increased from 55 to 58, while women working in manual labor can work until 55, compared to 50 previously.

Policymakers are also concerned about poor employment prospects for the large number of postgraduate graduates who will enter the labour market in the coming years, as the economy slows.

Universities in China have expanded the enrollment scale of postgraduate programs to allow students to pursue higher education to ease employment pressure during the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2023. A record 12.2 million graduates are expected to enter the labor market in 2025.

As of November 2024, the urban unemployment rate for the 16-24 age group was 16.1%, while the unemployment rate for the 25-29 age group was 6.7%. For the 30-59 age group, the rate was 3.8%.

Tsinghua University professor Pei Xiaomei hopes other public institutions such as universities and research centers will follow the example of the national civil service exam. PhD students worry about being too old to apply for positions in research institutes or educational institutions because the current recruitment age limit is 35.

Most PhD students in China graduate in their late 20s or early 30s, depending on their major. “If these students are considered the country’s elite, they should have a fairer chance to get the jobs they have been trained for,” Pei said.

Professor Liu Erduo said that for the government to truly integrate people over 35 into the public sector, there needs to be a change in culture. However, the government’s move to raise the age limit for national civil service exams to solve the “35-year-old curse” has received support from the people.

A hashtag related to this topic attracted 13.6 million views and generated 2,141 discussions, becoming one of the hottest topics in November 2024 on Weibo.

However, some remain skeptical about the effectiveness of the change. One netizen suggested that the change “might just be a formality” as employers could automatically exclude candidates over 35. “It would be easy for employers to find reasons to hire younger candidates,” a netizen from Hunan province wrote on Weibo.

Duc Hoang (according to Straits Times)

Labor and Social Affairs Newspaper No. 8

Source: https://dansinh.dantri.com.vn/nhan-luc/trung-quoc-no-luc-xoa-bo-phan-biet-tuoi-tac-trong-tuyen-dung-20250117110800681.htm