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A dozen men crowded around an employment agent early in the morning in suburban Shanghai, waving their identification cards as they scrambled to secure a 12-hour shift at a warehouse.

‘We need people who are strong,’ the agent told the group, warning them that temperatures were high inside the warehouse due to the summer weather.

The men were some of the thousands of domestic migrant workers in the Chinese metropolis eking out a living day by day, and competing for dwindling jobs at factories and construction sites in a slowing economy.

China’s top political brass — including president Xi Jinping and premier Li Qiang — are gathering next week for a key meeting, with the country’s economic woes at the top of the agenda.

Outside the employment agency, 34-year-old Shen Peng from northern China’s Shaanxi province said he had been looking for work for 10 days with no luck.

‘I want a factory job,’ he told AFP, saying he had so far only been offered hard physical labour for low pay.

Shen, a single father and former restaurant cook, is his family’s sole breadwinner.

‘(My child’s) mother fell ill and passed away, so that’s something I owe my child... I must at least find something with a higher income,’ Shen told AFP.

Recently returned to Shanghai after three years at home in Shaanxi, Shen is paying 40 yuan ($5.50) a night for a small room with air conditioning at a boarding house, and counts himself lucky compared to others who pay less for shared rooms equipped with only a fan.

The current dearth of employment opportunities starkly contrasts with Shen’s experience when he came to Shanghai for the first time in 2017.

Back then, there were plenty of jobs to choose from and he worked at a factory owned by Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, earning up to 8,000 yuan a month with accommodation and meals provided by his employer.

Now, he says hiring agents fill coveted factory roles more selectively.

‘In the past, there were no limits, as long as you knew the 26 letters of the English alphabet,’ he told AFP, adding that hiring agents were now even refusing people who appeared overweight for fear they would be unfit for the job.

Shen Chunping, an Anhui native with no relation to Shen Peng, had better luck at the employment agency on Tuesday.

He was selected for a temporary restaurant dishwasher role paying 112 yuan a day.

Landing the job was a great relief to Shen Chunping, who was unable to find work in May and June.

‘I’m short, and I don’t have much education, I only went to middle school so now I’m taking whatever job I can,’ he told AFP.

‘I’ve done everything, delivering parcels, security guard jobs, delivering take out, I’ve done it all,’ Shen Chunping said.

‘This year, there are more people (seeking jobs), and they can’t find jobs,’ he told AFP.

Outside an unassuming residential compound near the employment agency, around a hundred people were gathered at an informal roadside labour exchange before dawn on Tuesday.

Many stood holding shovels, waiting for employers to pick them for construction work.

Workers who had been there since as early as 3:00 am stood chatting with familiar faces between bites of fried bread sold at a nearby breakfast stall.

‘It’s a little bit worse this year compared to last year, Shanghai’s development has reached a limit,’ Shao Tongfang from Anhui province, who was waiting for a job, told AFP.

Shao said he had been seeking his fortune in the wealthy Chinese city for 20 years.

He plans to return to farming in his hometown ‘in a few years, when I can’t stay in this place any longer’.

‘I can’t do it in my hometown,’ said Mei Buqin, another labourer from Anhui, when asked why he chose to seek work in Shanghai.

As the sun rose, one of the luckier jobseekers told AFP he was heading off to work.

Smiling, the man jumped on the back of a scooter driven by his new employer and they drove off into the city.