Not a Single Cent Left, Beijing Collapses!! The Market Has Completely Fallen Apart, the Economy Is Stagnant and Sluggish — What Is the Real Situation!? Qiqi Baba TALK Episode 991 20261006
This episode provides a comprehensive look at the severe economic reality in China today—characterized by total market stagnation, business closures, a sharp decline in job openings, and widespread pay cuts and layoffs—through the real-life experiences of low-wage laborers, food delivery riders, unemployed white-collar workers, state-owned enterprise employees, and civil servants.
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Full transcript:
Hello everyone, welcome to Qi Qi Ba Ba, I am Qi Qi.
Look, it's hard to find a job now, there are so many people here. Everyone is working hard in the factories, while I have to run around everywhere.
I went for an interview again today. A security guard position pays 3,500 a month, and there were quite a few people interviewing. But I'm puzzled—for you fresh college graduates, coming to work as security guards right after graduation, how can I compete with you? Shouldn't you be working in companies or technical roles instead of fighting over security guard jobs? How could I possibly win against you? They would definitely prioritize hiring young people!
Wave after wave of people are dragging their luggage toward the station, but very few are coming out of the station. What does this indicate? It means a wave of people returning to their hometowns has already begun this year; more people are going back than coming out. We keep saying that the market situation outside is terrible and very bad, but many people don't believe it. Many still think the market is good and that they can still make seven or eight thousand a month. How is that possible? Go ask those who have already been out there, go take a look—even if they aren't picky anymore, is it easy for them to find work? It's not. The overall environment this year is already like this; the market is extremely bad.
I worked for three days, and now I'm not going back. During the interview, they told me the hours were 9:30 AM to 7:00 PM, but after I started, I found out they wanted me to work overtime until 9:30 PM. So, after I found a job following my unemployment, I worked for three days, and now I'm unemployed again. It really is quite difficult for middle-aged people to find work.
Let me tell you! In this environment where it's so hard to work, right? Jobs are so hard to find, and when things get a bit busy or tiring, people start complaining. What's there to complain about? I'll just put it out there, right? If you're willing to work, do it; if you're not, then fuck off.
This is the hardest year in history. I've recently visited a few banks, and many friends in the banking industry have told me that this is the hardest year for all major business lines since they started, bar none. In the past, no matter how bad the market was, at least a few orders would come in every month. But this year, it suddenly stopped. No phone calls, no WeChat messages, no inquiries. Very few people are taking out loans now.
You see, the seafood market is now on the verge of paralysis! People are packed, goods are piled up. Look at these purchases, look, they've written their names on them, look. See that?
People.
Nobody at their place either.
Even fewer people at mine.
It is really hard to make money these days. I went to buy breakfast just now from a fellow townsman. He must be seventy, right? He said business is hard to do and kept complaining to me. I said, your business was quite good last year and the year before, what happened this year? He said there is no one left, he doesn't know where everyone has gone. Is this really the new normal now? He said this to me while hunched over, working with his hands.
It is heartbreaking to hear. Oh my god! I thought I was the only one who lost my job, I thought I was the only one whose business went under, but who knew? Once you start talking about it, so many people have just chosen to lie flat; they cannot keep going. I have been looking for a job for half a year and cannot find one. It is driving me crazy.
Oh, my god! Look, this is the Zhengzhou tourism and labor market. Look at the day laborers here, look at the day laborers here, so many people haven't found work. There are too many people here these days.
At the end of last year, both of us lost our jobs. We still haven't found work, we are unemployed drifters, and we have a kid to raise, a, a kid to raise. We are unemployed every day and don't know what to do. The monthly mortgage is 4,000 yuan, and the two kids need at least 2,000 yuan. We have zero savings, and now we don't know what to do.
This brother here is from Luzhou, Sichuan. He came from home and hasn't found a job in three days. All the money he had is gone, and he hasn't eaten. I got him some stir-fried pork with chili and a fried egg. Come on, brother, have a drink too, okay? From Luzhou, Sichuan, right?
Yeah.
Ah! Are there any brothers or fellow townsmen from Luzhou? Help him get a job in a factory! He is from Luzhou, Sichuan, and hasn't eaten in three days. Eat slowly, brother.
I am not looking for work anymore. I have a junior college degree, a bachelor's degree, and a master's degree. The resumes I sent out are mostly not even read, and the majority are not even opened.
Even those inside the system have their wages delayed, you know? My childhood friend who works inside the system in Shenzhen had dinner with me tonight and complained that he hasn't been paid for two months. In the past, I thought having a government position was great, everyone fought to get in, just for the stability and guaranteed income. Now? The salary is uncertain, and he is even worried about being laid off. The cost-effectiveness has plummeted.
What is the real situation with jobs now? Here, the county-level public institutions have already stopped paying the monthly or quarterly bonuses for several months; they only pay the basic salary. And now, even the civil servants are just barely getting by; they say there is no money left this month, no money to pay salaries. I just want to say, all these government units are like this. And me, I work at a central state-owned enterprise, and I haven't been paid for two months now. This is how the environment is right now.
With the way things are this year, don't even talk about saving money for your son to get married; if your own wife doesn't run away, you should thank your lucky stars.
If you can't find a job now, you really don't need to be anxious, because it is fucking harder than finding a partner. Didn't my husband lose his job before? I just flipped through some recruitment information. Hey, let me summarize it for you: if you are married and don't have kids, they don't want you, fearing you will take maternity leave; if you have already had kids, they still don't want you, fearing you will have a second child and that your first child is too young and will interfere with your work. Hey, so what if you are unmarried? They don't want you if you are unmarried either. Why? Because you have no pressure and can quit at any time. Ah, they don't want anyone over thirty-five, and they don't want anyone too young either; if you have too much experience, you are hard to manage, so they don't want you. If you have too little experience, the training time is too long, the time cost is too high, so they don't want you. Uh, they don't want people with high degrees, and they don't want people with low degrees either. Finally, I saw one: a security guard position for 2,500 yuan a month that requires you to know how to use a computer to make PPTs. What kind of PPT are you going to make as a security guard? Everything is going to blow up, don't go to work! Just lie flat if you aren't working.
Why are you crying? Singing.
Finally, today...
No money.
Finally earned some money today.
Ah, I'll have food to eat later.
I'll have food to eat later. Hmm, I see you are having a hard time, so I'll give you another 100 yuan. Can you sing me a song about life, a song about people? Is that okay?
Okay. I feel like I am thirty-six, and I feel like I have been living as hard as I can. Why does it feel so hard for us? I, I work very hard every day delivering food, and it is hard to even earn 100 yuan. Why? What should I do? Because of loneliness.
Everyone's life is not easy; everything is becoming tight.
So, regarding overtime, compared to two-shift rotations, there is quite a lot. My working hours here start at 8:00 AM, and on average, I have to work overtime until 10:00 or 10:30 PM. Have you ever said you couldn't accept overtime? Even foreign countries are at war.
Foreign trade is really not doing well, and our factory is no exception; orders have been directly slashed by more than half. Usually, at this time of year, we would be working overtime until past nine o'clock, but now, we are practically on holiday already. I keep thinking, if the country were to become unstable one day, wouldn't it be us ordinary people who couldn't hold on first?
This is no longer a matter of lying flat; the real issue now is that there simply aren't that many jobs left. Indeed, more and more people are losing their positions, and more and more jobs are being eliminated. We can no longer blame anyone for lying flat or being slackers—it is that people want to work but can't find anything out there, while some available jobs have terrible pay and excessively long hours. Nowadays, having a job is even more miserable than being unemployed, because you are replaceable; if you can't do the work, you just leave, with plenty of people waiting in line behind you. Therefore, the environment for people inside the workplace is even harsher.
Come on and study! How is it going? Studying slowly, Taiwan can produce it itself, but it hasn't reached that qualification yet.
Ah, things are really too hard right now. A couple of days ago, I was chatting with some former colleagues who used to be supervisors; they are all women, a bit older. They told me there are no jobs now either, and they are all stuck at home—some used to do planning, some sales, but none of them have jobs. Hmm, it felt to me like they were reading from the same script, as if they were saying that this era has abandoned them, the workplace has abandoned them, and they can no longer find suitable jobs. So what can be done? What should our generation do? We are in our thirties, so what now? How do we handle this situation?
Listening to a teenage girl delivering food.
Have you seen what the drivers are like? Did you see that?
Two. What is the driver like? Just now. Let's watch the meeting between Trump and Xi.
My, my brother. Right, never leave. See that? What did they deliver?
Tiananmen, right?
Big brother, I can't walk anymore, and you aren't paying the shipping fee.
Look at the market. Nothing good to eat! We are really going to starve. After resting at home for three days, I only picked up one order today, which took two hours. Things really can't go on like this; this path is truly a dead end, and I need to figure out another way. Why? Because I have to make money! My children's tuition, living expenses, and my own expenses—money has to be spent everywhere.
Now the overall environment is bad, and nowhere in the country is doing very well. My husband's classmate in Chengdu, Sichuan, is also in our line of work and opened six or seven shops. Hmm, last year's revenue was already half less than the year before, just like our family—it dropped by more than half. Since his revenue dropped by more than half, you can see that the current business... well, the current macro environment is really not suitable for opening new shops.
Clinics are so hard to run this year, see that? Another clinic has gone out of business, the iron pot storefront next door is also up for transfer, and the whole market is in desolation.
You see, today's competition is truly fierce. I have been eating at this fast-food restaurant for several months, and this place was newly opened. But later, a Mr. Rice opened right next to it, and now this shop is about to close because it can't compete with Mr. Rice. Look at this Mr. Rice—it opened right next to it, right opposite to it. There are only so many people eating out anyway, right? Mr. Rice has a bigger brand, hey, once it starts competing with you for customers, it squeezes you to death.
Watching so many companies go bankrupt one after another, I can't help but worry about suddenly losing my job. I used to be a Master's graduate from a 985 university, and back then I naively thought that with my educational background, finding a stable job should be no problem at all. But now I realize it's truly a joke, because many PhD holders can't find jobs either. Sigh, the jobs available outside are pitifully few, because the entire industry is cutting staff and reducing salaries. Therefore, once you get laid off, it is very hard to find a suitable job again, and your income will be cut off. However, you still have a mortgage to pay, children to raise, and your own life to maintain—there is zero way out. Furthermore, when the company cuts your pay and transfers you to another post, there is not an ounce of room for negotiation; you either accept it or get laid off.
At noon, I had lunch with a client from a state-owned enterprise, and he said their salary nowadays is only a little over 3,000 yuan a month. I said, did you accidentally join a fake state-owned enterprise? Or are you on a labor dispatch? How is it possible for a state-owned enterprise salary to be just over 3,000 yuan? He said it's 100% true, and the salary really is only a little over 3,000 yuan now. I said I've been doing loan agency work here in Nanning for at least three years, and I've seen hundreds of housing provident fund screenshots and personal income tax screenshots. For someone doing poorly, getting 5,000 or 6,000 a month is normal; for someone doing better, 7,000 or 8,000, or even 10,000 is possible. You saying you only make a little over 3,000 leaves me...
Puzzled. He said: "That's the factual reality, because salary cuts have already begun—some have been slashed by 40% or even 50%, and that's only for regular employees who get to enjoy the privilege of having their salaries cut. They prettify it by calling it narrowing the wealth gap, give me a break."
My husband is thirty-six years old. He lost his job yesterday and got home at midnight. He was born in 1990 and is turning forty soon. Our family is 600,000 in debt, and we have two boys, one six and one five. I suddenly realized that after ten years of busy life, it all ended up being for nothing.
Fuck, isn't it said that only those who strive will win? I use Pinduoduo, I use Pinhaofan, I use carpooling—I've been fucking striving so hard, when the fuck will I ever win?
Even civil servants can't hold on anymore; they can't even get their salaries paid. This "iron rice bowl" is now on the verge of breaking. A few days ago, a friend of mine who works at the Chengdu Water Conservancy Bureau came to me and said that their unit is even behind on social security and housing provident fund payments.
My salary hasn't been paid yet, and tonight our leader said in the group chat that this month's salary might be delayed until next month. You're not just cutting salaries now, you're delaying them too. A colleague of mine is currently traveling in Sanya, and he said, "I hope the company is still there when I get back, right?" It's too terrifying.
It's been three months without a salary. My child asks me every day, "Mom, are you getting paid today?" He has asked for three months, and I have answered "no" ninety times.
If you haven't come yet, don't come to Zhejiang. All the factories in Zhejiang have gone bankrupt; only a few are still operating, and you can't even find a factory to work in.
My friend called me today and said his company had layoffs, and unfortunately, he was caught in it. He has children, a car loan, and a mortgage. I can't even imagine the pressure he's under; I didn't dare say much, I could only offer a few words of comfort. Then I remembered that among my classmates from junior high, high school, and university—I have a bachelor's degree and kept in normal contact with them—seventy or eighty percent are unemployed.
If I had known earlier that my job would be delivering food, I wouldn't have gone to college. Now I have to wear glasses just to find the orders, terrified that I'll take the wrong one and get a complaint. I still have 150,000 in student loans to pay off. Sigh, how many orders do I have to deliver to pay it off? And the year has just begun.
It's over. Everyone in the world is running, everyone is dispersing.
Today I truly felt how bad the overall environment is! See that building? And the one next to it? Each of them has fifty-four floors. I walked from the fifty-fourth floor all the way to the first floor, taking over 15,000 steps in total. Looking at the empty rooms one by one, my heart felt sour, because I am also one of those on the layoff list. Scanning the entire building, there are only one or two companies doing well. If you have a job, don't quit, okay? Because just because you quit doesn't mean you'll be able to find another one.
Uh, the rise in gasoline prices has a huge impact on our physical stores. Um, now rice prices are up, flour prices are up, oil prices are up, and um, meat too. Yesterday, even egg prices went up. Um, gas prices are up too. I calculated yesterday—it's only the 22nd today—and I've already used nearly 2,000 yuan in gas. What should I do next? Business this year was already very involuted; if it goes on like this, there's no profit, and if it continues, everything will close down. One yuan is nothing.
You're eating too? Eating these three steamed buns all day long! This is authentic Hulu Baozi.
The ghost of economic recession is sweeping across China, shattering people's dreams of a stable life and pushing millions of workers into the most brutal battle for survival. Once-prosperous large factories and commercial districts now have their iron gates pulled down in silence, replaced by a tide of despair. Carrying their suitcases, with nowhere else to turn, they sadly flee the cities. Under the shadow of the layoff storm, heartbreaking contradictions have emerged. Many are forced to set aside their master's degrees to deliver food, while the "iron rice bowl" of civil servants is shattering under the pressure of unpaid wages and pay cuts. Caught between soaring prices for daily necessities and an employment market filled with unreasonable demands, every social stratum from youth to middle age is being suffocated, forced to cling desperately to every remaining chance of survival. Those bitter sighs of people who only dare to eat a steamed bun to fill their stomachs are a portrait of a generation's total disillusionment. They have come to the bitter realization that even if they work themselves to exhaustion, they cannot overcome the ruthless turmoil and oppression of this era. Thank you for watching. What are your thoughts on China's current economic and social situation? Please leave a comment below and share with us. If you want to keep up with more in-depth analysis and reports, please be sure to subscribe, like, and turn on the notification bell. See you in the next video.
Doing business now is not absolutely impossible, but it is extremely, extremely difficult. You can think of it as walking through a swamp, because so many people have no money in their pockets, making it very hard to earn money. And when it is hard for one person to earn money, that person becomes afraid to spend money recklessly. When this happens to a large group of people, there is no money in the market, which leads to a depression, because if no one spends, no one earns. It is like water; just imagine a stagnant pool of dead water—can anything live in it? The market is the same. Alright, that is all for this episode. If you would like to support me, please join the membership channel. I really look forward to chatting with you in real-time during the member-only live streams. That is it for this episode, and I will see you in the next one.