China’s ageing workforce: As the country gets older, will Big Tech’s ageist glass ceiling crack?

This is the 15th in a series of stories about China’s once-a-decade census, which was conducted in 2020. The world’s most populous nation released its national demographic data in May and the figures will have far-reaching social policy and economic implications.

As soon as Annie Li told the recruitment manager at a Chinese gaming company that she was 35 years old and married without children, she said the tone of her job interview shifted abruptly.

“Before I told her [the recruitment manager] my age and marriage status, the interview was going pretty well,” said Li. “But once I mentioned these facts, her attitude suddenly changed and she wrapped things up saying your experience is more what foreign companies are looking for, you’re not suitable for us, sorry.”

Li suspects that she had hit the glass ceiling, not for being a woman, but for being too old. In China, many industry participants say that in fast-growing sectors of the economy, the competitiveness of applicants plummets as they approach 35 years old. Indeed, many employers openly put “under 35” as a condition for certain job opportunities, including the government.

Age discrimination in the country’s technology industry is particularly acute, with employees aged 35 and older who are not in a management or high-value position, at high risk of being laid off when cost-cutting rounds are announced.

Nearly two-thirds of people in China aged 35 and above who were laid off in March 2020 were still looking for jobs in September, according to a report released in January by the Development Research Centre of the State Council, which was based on data and a survey from Chinese job portal Zhaopin.