The Chinese company caused a storm of public opinion by calling the 24-year-old student ‘old’

Young Chinese people are facing many difficulties in finding work because of the difficulties of the economy and COVID-19 – SCMP screenshot

According to the newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) On May 28, in the middle of this week, a female student surnamed He was informed by China Unicom that they no longer needed her for the previously offered position because she was “too old”. At least five other people were also withdrawn from their job offers for the same reason.

China’s Houlang news site reported that China Unicom had explained that hiring He was against the company’s internal regulations. According to this regulation, people who have not graduated from university when recruiting to the company must be under 24 years old.

He was born in February 1998, is about to graduate this year but started working for China Unicom last year. According to her, before the two sides signed the working agreement, the company checked the background and did not notice anything unusual.

This makes female students feel confused and bewildered because the recruitment festival organized by the university has passed, finding a new job is not easy for a new graduate like her.

In China, businesses often “skimmed” good students in recruitment fairs organized by universities. Many businesses “book seats” with a commitment to recruit these students to work officially as soon as they graduate.

“The compensation is not important. They took advantage of students and we are offended, especially since some of us have turned down offers from other companies to choose China Unicom “, Miss He expressed frustration.

He’s story has sparked a wave of criticism of China’s workplace age discrimination.

“What’s wrong with being 24? Who isn’t a college graduate at that age. Can’t understand how they can be so unreasonable.” SCMP quoted a comment of a Chinese netizen.

Another person expressed surprise that the age discrimination is now increasingly “rejuvenating”, from people under 35 years old to people under 25 years old.

“I’m speechless with this case. Does it mean that the government is asking people to work at an earlier age and retire at an older age?” another user asked.

Age discrimination is a big problem in China, even though the country is facing a shrinking working-age population (between 19 and 59 years old).

Earlier this year, China’s National Bureau of Statistics released a report showing that there are 882 million people of working age in the country, down from 894 million in 2021.