
They used to work for China’s biggest companies. Now they’re doing manual labor
CNN
Conglomerates in China are slowly losing their appeal as economy faces headwinds. Some workers resign themselves to blue-collar jobs for work-life balance.
Leon Li used to play a discreet but indispensable part at one of China’s biggest tech giants. As an administrative officer, she worked around the clock to schedule meetings, prepare documents and provide her bosses with whatever support they needed. But in February, she quit the company, forgoing a stable career and comfortable salary forsomething a little less stressful — cleaning homes. “Every morning when the alarm rang, all I could see was my dull future,” she told CNN, reflecting on her office job. Li, 27, is part of a growing base of Chinese workers swapping high-pressure office jobs for flexible blue-collar work. Many of them used to work for some of the biggest companies in the country.

It was almost an extraordinary scene in front of the White House. As Tesla shares have been tanking since the year began, President Donald Trump held remarks outside of the White House with the company’s CEO and Department of Government Efficiency Head Elon Musk – all in front of a line of shiny Tesla vehicles.