E-Paper
No job? No problem — China’s young adults are paying to sit in fake offices
In a struggling job market, some young adults in China are paying companies for the chance to sit in fully equipped offices.
In a struggling job market, some young adults in China are paying companies for the chance to sit in fully equipped offices. These unemployed youngsters don’t want a salary. Instead, they pay for the privilege of pretending to have a job.
According to a BBC report, this unusual trend has been growing in major cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chengdu and Kunming, as the country’s youth unemployment rate remains above 14%.
‘Pretend to work’ as a solution
Shui Zhou, 30, joined Dongguan’s Pretend To Work Company in April this year after his food business shuttered in 2024. For 30 yuan ( ₹365) a day, he shares an office with five others doing the same.
"I feel very happy," he says. "It's like we're working together as a group." Zhou, who usually arrives between 8am and 9am and sometimes stays until 11pm, says the environment has improved his self-discipline. “The other people there are now like friends,” he adds, noting they often share meals after work.
Zhou is not alone in working at such pretend offices. There are several other facilities like the one where he goes every week.
Daily fees at such facilities range from 30 to 50 yuan, sometimes including lunch, snacks and drinks. Rather than idly passing the day, many attendees search for jobs, work on freelance projects, or try launching start-ups.
‘Very common’ in China
Dr Christian Yao, senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Management, calls the phenomenon “very common” in China.
“Due to economic transformation and the mismatch between education and the job market, young people need these places to think about their next steps, or to do odd jobs as a transition. Pretend office companies are one of the transitional solution,” Yao explained.
Faking internships for diplomas
Some unemployed youngsters use these fake offices to pretend in front of their families that they are gainfully employed. Some use the space to think and hunt for jobs in silence and privacy.
For others, the motivation is more strategic. In Shanghai, 23-year-old Xiaowen Tang paid for a workstation at a pretend work company for a month earlier this year. A 2023 graduate still without a full-time job, she faced an unwritten university rule: graduates must submit proof of employment or internship within a year to receive their diploma.
Tang submitted photos of herself in the office as proof. In reality, she was using the space to write online novels for pocket money. “If you’re going to fake it, just fake it to the end,” she says.
For Pretend To Work Company’s owner Feiyu (a pseudonym), the venture is personal. The 30-year-old was unemployed after his retail business shut during the Covid pandemic. “What I’m selling isn’t a workstation, but the dignity of not being a useless person,” he says.
