January 14, 2025
CHONGQING – Project manager David Li, 34, who lives in Guangzhou city in southern China, is not looking forward to his birthday in May.
He has yet to be promoted to a more senior position after working for five years at a tech company – unlike a couple of his colleagues – which might mean that the company does not value him enough.
His job could be at stake.
Mr Li, who is single but faces monthly mortgage payments of 8,000 yuan (S$1,500), told The Straits Times: “Our higher-ups have warned that this year might be more difficult than 2024, so a lot of us, particularly those above 35, are worried about our jobs.”
The fear of losing his job led him to work up to 12 hours a day regularly in 2024 to show his bosses that he is still capable of clocking overtime.
On weekends, he would also be at the ready to answer calls and work on last-minute requests such as coming up with presentation slides.
Mr Li is not alone in his work anxiety – insecurity among Chinese workers over their jobs as they hit 35 years old has grown as China’s “curse of 35”, or age discrimination among employers, is exacerbated by a slowing economy.
The Chinese government is now taking the lead to resolve the problem of ageist hiring policies among employers by raising the recruitment age limit for civil service jobs from 35 to 40 years old, through lifting the age ceiling for civil service examinations.
Employers’ preference for younger and cheaper workers can be seen in job listings in both the public and private sectors, which have tended to restrict applicants to those aged between 18 and 35.
This means that for someone like Mr Li, losing his current job would mean that he might be out of the workforce for a significant amount of time, if not permanently.
Labour economist Liu Erduo of Renmin University in Beijing said that the curse’s origins might stem from China’s earlier years of reform, when there was a move to encourage younger people to join the government.
“There was a theory widely believed then that after 35, people are less innovative and less driven,” said Professor Liu.
Sociologist Pei Xiaomei of Tsinghua University said that, subsequently, some private companies started using age – specifically the age of 35 – as an excuse to let go of workers or restrict the number of applicants for jobs.
While career stagnation in China comes early at 35 years old, this is not the case in countries like Singapore, where the average age at which careers stagnate is 48, according to a survey in 2020 by recruitment agency Randstad.
In October 2024, the Chinese government announced that it would be raising the age ceiling from 35 to 40 for those taking the national civil service examinations for entry into central government agencies.
Jobs in these agencies have long been considered plum positions among the Chinese, prized for their prestige and stability – provided applicants have postgraduate degrees.
A record 3.4 million Chinese people applied to take the exams in December 2024.
The change follows moves in recent years by local governments, such as those in Hubei and Hunan provinces and Tianjin municipality, to raise their age ceiling for civil service exam candidates from 35 to 40.
The move to raise the age ceiling for the national civil service exams was suggested by political adviser Li Zhengguo from south-western Sichuan province during the annual parliamentary meetings in Beijing in 2024.
Mr Li, who is also a director at a law firm, said private firms have been discriminating against those turning 35 years old because of China’s prevalent “996” culture.
This refers to the illegal practice of having workers work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week – a common phenomenon among those in the tech sector.
At 35 years old, the majority of Chinese people are deemed to be married and have children, which can lead to them being more reluctant to work long hours.
They are also seen as less energetic and passionate, and more expensive than the fresh graduates eager to take their places.
Absorbing workers as economy slows
Analysts said the change in China’s civil service age limit is also part of the groundwork that Beijing is laying to absorb workers who may be affected by employers’ ageist policies and the country’s overall slower growth.
Beijing is also sending a signal to private companies to follow its example of raising the recruitment age ceiling, they added.
China’s gross domestic product grew 4.8 per cent in the first nine months of 2024, slightly short of its target of around 5 per cent. Full-year data will be out only on Jan 17.
Economists expect 2025 to be a difficult year for China, given its intensifying competition with the US and the European Union’s stricter oversight of Chinese exports.
Already, workers in China have been complaining about illegal salary deductions and unpaid wages in recent months.
Public anxiety over turning 35 has grown so much in recent years that, in 2023, a temple in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, came under attack for wanting only new monks aged below 35.
Taiqing temple had to shut its doors and its head abbot had to turn off his mobile phone after netizens began lambasting the monastery for what they saw as unnecessary age discrimination.
A senior monk later had to explain that the age requirement was set in the 1980s owing to the need for monks to lead a “simple life”.
Older people might find it hard to grow accustomed to Chengdu’s year-long wet and humid climate, he added.
Dr Jane Du, a research associate at the Soas China Institute in London, said policymakers may be trying to absorb workers who are aged above 35 as a stopgap measure.
“If the so-called curse of 35 persists amid widespread redundancies across industries (owing) to the economic slowdown and lingering effects of Covid-19, it may be increasingly difficult for experienced or well-educated workers to integrate back into the labour market if they were out of a job for a while,” she added.
China may also be facing an impending labour shortage in the coming years because of its shrinking population, underscoring the need to keep its current workers relevant, added Dr Du, who studies demographic and labour economics in China.
The government has raised the retirement age from 60 to 63 for men, in changes starting in January.
For women in white-collar jobs, the retirement age has been raised from 55 to 58, while women in blue-collar jobs can work until 55, up from 50 years old.
Policymakers could also be worried about poorer employment prospects for a large number of postgraduate students set to enter the workforce in the coming years, owing to the country’s slowing economy.
China’s universities had been expanding enrolment for postgraduate studies to allow students to pursue further education to ease employment pressures amid the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2023.
A record 12.2 million graduates are set to enter the workforce in 2025.
As at November 2024, the urban unemployment rate for those between the ages of 16 and 24 stood at 16.1 per cent, while the jobless rate for those between 25 and 29 years old was 6.7 per cent. The unemployment rate for those between 30 and 59 years old was 3.8 per cent.
Tsinghua University’s Professor Pei hopes that other public institutions such as universities and research centres can follow the example of the national civil service exams.
She said doctoral students worry about being too old to apply for positions in institutes of higher learning and research centres – which their PhD training is for – because of the current recruitment age limit of 35.
Most doctoral students in China graduate in their late 20s or early 30s, depending on their courses.
“Many of them would say that they are rushing to apply for these positions before they get too old,” said Prof Pei.
“If these students are supposed to be the country’s best and brightest, then they should be given a fairer chance for jobs that they were training for.”
Prof Liu said it will take a cultural shift for the government to properly integrate those who are above 35 into the civil service.
“Many who are highly educated and above 35 may have expectations of how to be treated and could be unhappy with entry-level work,” he said.
“It will also be hard for their superiors to try and give them work if the age gap is too big,” he added, referring to China’s hierarchical culture where age plays a big factor.
Nevertheless, the government’s move to raise the age ceiling for the national civil service exams to address the “curse of 35” has been praised by the Chinese.
A hashtag on the topic received 13.6 million views and sparked 2,141 discussion threads, and was one of the hottest topics in November 2024 on popular microblogging platform Weibo.
But some are sceptical about the efficacy of the change.
A netizen said that change “might only be procedural” as interviewers may automatically exclude candidates who are above 35 years old.
“It will be easy for interviewers to find an excuse to pick a younger candidate,” the netizen from central Hunan province said on Weibo.
Exam candidates will find out later in January if they passed, with interviews expected to be held in February.
“Ultimately, this is just a very small step, but at least it is one in the right direction,” the netizen added.
- Aw Cheng Wei is The Straits Times’ China correspondent based in Chongqing.