QQ sent reporter Cui Guanghua out to take these incredibly thorough set of pictures of a group of professional beggars in Zhengzhou, Henan. The photos follow the group from morning to dusk and shows what a day of work for a professional beggar is like:

During the morning rush hour at the northwest corner of Huayuan Road and Weiwu Road, an old man lies on the ground covered with a sheet while a middle-aged woman repeatedly kowtows beside him (above).

Half an hour later, a middle-aged man comes over to join the group. He looks
into the bucket, counts the money, puts it into his pocket. All three, including the man lying prone on the ground, get engaged in a light-hearted conversation.

According to the QQ report, the middle-aged man that just joined the group is named Zhang; the man on the ground is Zhang’s cousin, while the middle-aged woman is Ye,
Zhang’s other cousin.

The group is from from Qiaoxi, Anhui Province, and has been in Henan for three years. Their assimilation into the local culture is so complete that Zhang and He can both fluently speak the Henan dialect.

At 11:30am, the trio pack up their belongings and take the bus to go to another location.

Twenty minutes later, the group arrives at Renmin Road, near “Danny’s” shopping center. It is now noon, and there are lots of pedestrians in the area. People drop money into the group’s cup.

In the afternoon the members of the group enjoy popsicles while counting their earnings.

Beer is used to fill up a water bottle that acts as a substitute for “medicine”.

The group produces a sizable amount of garbage from consuming food and other products that a street cleaner sweeps away for them.

At around 2:30pm there is less pedestrian traffic, so the group meets up with another beggar who happens to have the the same gear as they do.

Zhang is seen counting the money again.

The group then heads for a late lunch of fried chicken and beer.

After eating, the group begs during the evening rush hour.

Half an hour later, the group is forced to relocate next to a parking garage because of mall staff.

After half an hour, they switch positions.

A day of work finally concludes at 10pm when the group has dinner at a restaurant.

Dinner is paid for in small bills.

At one point Ye took offense to being photographed by the reporter.

To top it off, at some point Zhang was seen browsing at a Cartier jewelry store.

Photos: QQ, Shenzhen Evening Report

China’s employment situation is quite grim given that 2013 was described by the newspaper as the country’s “toughest employment season ever”. Almost seven million college graduates flooded into the country’s various job-hunting markets.

But the situation might be worse than what we had imagined, especially when Shenzhen, the country’s traditional boom town, is seeing 24.28% of its residents putting tiaocao, meaning job-hopping, on their New Year’s wish lists, according to a survey conducted by the newspaper.

The findings were echoed by a survey by Zhilian Zhaopin, a job search website. Zhilian’s results showed Shenzhen’s white-collar workers at among the least happy with their salaries.

Now that one has secured a year-end bonus (an important reason not to quit around the end of the year), job hunting in the city is in full swing, the newspaper said.

Dong Shasha is a case in point. A graduate from a Beijing college three years ago, Dong has changed jobs three times since graduation while working in the city’s advertising business.

Now she is hunting for another one, but is more cautious this time. As the job market gets tougher, a “naked resignation,” meaning quitting a job without another one lined up, is gradually losing its allure, the report said.

“I have been keeping an eye on various job posts since the end of last year. I am juggling between job interviews and my current job. A naked resignation is quite risky,” Dong said.

Yang Aogang, who received a job offer last year in the city’s telecommunication industry, is still weighing the pros and cons between his old job and the new one.

But compared with the 6.99-million graduates, who are probably still pounding the pavement for a job, Yang should be considered lucky.

Home page photo credit: Southern Weekly 

To provide a glimmer of hope, a recruitment fair was held at Jinan University over the weekend to give final year students a chance to enter the “ant race.” On Saturday, the university’s Shipai Campus held a job fair for students hoping to work in fields related to finance. Then yesterday, another was held for students of humanities subjects, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

Meanwhile, the Guangzhou University of Technology will host a recruitment fair this coming weekend (November 24-25). Saturday will be devoted to fields such as I.T., construction, and direct selling. Sunday will be for students who do science subjects.

These recruitment fairs are known in China for seeing huge crowds that the Chinese describe as “People sea, people mountain.” Here is a picture of a 2008 job fair in Shenzhen (hat tip to Chinasmack)

The China Liby Company has already received 10,000 Resumes this year, about half of which were instantly rejected before four rounds of interviews to choose a candidate.

Good luck kids.