For China’s workers, financial security is further out of reach than ever. They are stuck in China’s deflation loop. Stubbornly low prices on everything from eggs to a hot delivered meal have cut into the profits that businesses make, gnawing at the money workers earn. Everyone has become tighter with money, pushing down prices even more.

The Chinese government has for several years been dealing with deflation, the pernicious side effect of a property crisis crawling through the economy and putting a freeze on much economic activity. The big exception has been in manufacturing, where factories are making far more than Chinese consumers can buy. Those goods, including electronics and clothes, are sent overseas to countries like the United States. Exports accounted for nearly a third of China’s economic growth last year.

Beijing has been battling the pressures of deflation since its “zero Covid” policy, which dampened business outlook and consumer appetite to spend. And the property meltdown has erased much of the net worth of many Chinese families, which traditionally placed most of their savings into real estate. The job losses in the real estate sector, which at its peak accounted for a third of the economy, are staggering.