The term “urban drifters” has recently gone viral on social media in China. It is used to describe jobless people or those struggling to find work who roam city streets during working hours to hide their plight from their families. China’s National Statistics Bureau has reported that the urban unemployment rate from January to April stands at 5.
2 per cent, a 0.2-per-cent decrease from last year. The youth unemployment rate for 16-24 year-olds, excluding college students, was 14.
7 per cent in April. The Post takes a closer look. Zhang Ni, 35, had never been out of work in her life, but she decided to take her time after resigning from her last job because it had such a detrimental effect on her physical and mental health.
She said the Beijing start-up company she worked for did not treat her equally and loaded her with excessive work. After leaving the company last November, Zhang did not want her family to worry about her, so she commuted to a book cafe every weekday. She is still doing so six months later.
Zhang posted on her Xiaohongshu account @KouniConnie that it was an experience filled with both anxiety and blessings. Despite worrying about her reduced income and the lack of achievement, she felt unable to begin a new job she did not like. On the up side, drifting helped her rediscover the beauty of Beijing.
She enjoyed having the time to appreciate the city she had lived in for years. A 31-year-old man in Shenzhen known as Zen, told the mainland media outlet Shen.
