Qiu has been scouring Shanghai’s labour agencies for a job for her 58-year-old father – a former mechanic from neighbouring Jiangsu province caught in a frustrating limbo.
While he is still years away from the official retirement age for rural migrants, his struggle to find work underscores a paradox in China’s financial hub: even as the city desperately needs more workers to counter a shrinking population, ageing jobseekers are being met with high fees and physical exhaustion.
His search…