More Chinese cities offer free accommodations to lure jobseekers, ease their financial burden
- ‘Competition is fierce’ for jobs across China as the job pool faces another record batch of university graduates, and many are already moving to new cities to get a leg up
- Even jobseekers in their mid-thirties can take advantage of the free rooms in some lower-tier cities, and some stays can span weeks
Before Sally Zhang managed to find a job and rent a long-term shared flat in Shanghai, she spent her nights couch surfing around town – from friends’ dormitories to cheap hostels.
One of the most unforgettable stays for the 23-year-old, who will officially graduate from a Sichuan university next month but has been in Shanghai since early April to secure work, was a free five-day stay at a studio flat in the northern suburban district of Baoshan.
“The place is very far away from downtown, and there’s no subway station. But it helped fulfil an immediate need of mine at that time,” said the woman, who moved to China’s most populous city with very little savings.
Her brief but free stay was part of an initiative subsidised by the city government to support young jobseekers in an increasingly difficult employment environment, with another record number of graduates set to enter the job market this year while many businesses struggle to cope in post-Covid conditions.
I know that competition is fierce … I feared there would be so many people flocking [to Shanghai]
Baoshan launched its free-housing scheme in June. Applicants can apply for stays of up to five days, as Zhang did, and to be eligible they must be completing their undergraduate, graduate or doctoral studies this year, with a job-interview invitation from a local company.