From Reuters:
Short of food and running low on cash, a group of men huddled under a bridge in Beijing and waited for someone, anyone to come by and offer them work, any work.
The global economic slowdown is taking a toll on China and threatens to swell its ranks of the unemployed, undoing impressive income gains made in recent years and undermining the ‘harmonious society’ that the government prizes above all else.
Hit especially hard are the rural migrants who have long streamed into cities to build office towers, clean streets and staff factories.
Read also Crisis Hits Chinese Workers from RFA.