Yu Mei, 36, has been working at the state-owned Da Peng bicycle chain plant in Shandong province for 14 years. Now, like millions of other employees of state-owned enterprises, she faces an uncertain future and unemployment.
Da Peng was once the biggest employer in the area, with more than 1,000 staff relying on the company for their welfare, from housing, to schooling and medical care. But since the company began to restructure in 1996, more than 600 workers have been laid off.
With no new orders coming in and a non-performing loan of 7 million yuan, more layoffs are expected to be announced after the Lunar New Year, as they have been every year for the past seven.
At 300 yuan a month, Ms Yu's salary is not high, but she makes a vital contribution to the family's income, whose only other source of revenue is generated by her husband, who opened a tiny restaurant last year after being laid off himself.
'It is not easy to find a job,' Ms Yu said. 'What's more, I will lose my pension the moment I am laid off since the plant is too poor to cash it.'
Ms Yu's story is a familiar one, and is about to become even more so.
