王月眉2025年8月27日在北京马驹桥附近的一个劳务市场找日结工作的工人，摄于今年7月某日凌晨4点左右。每天聚集在这里寻找赚钱机会的人来自全国各地。 Qilai Shen for The New York TimesThe intersection is quiet at 4 a.m., but not as quiet as one might expect. Fluorescent light radiates from all-night breakfast stalls. People, mostly men, loiter in small groups on the sidewalk, silently eating steamed buns. Everyone seems to be waiting.凌晨4点，这个十字路口很安静，但并非万籁俱静。通宵营业的早餐摊点着日光灯。人们——以男性为主——三三两两地闲站在人行道上，默默地啃着馒头。所有人似乎都在等待着什么。Around 4:30, the first rays of sun appear, and it becomes clear what everyone was waiting for.大约4点30分时，第一缕曙光出现，众人所等待的缘由也变得清晰起来。Job recruiters ride up on electric scooters and, without getting off, start shouting out day rates — 170 yuan! 180! (That’s about $25.) The early risers swarm around them to hear what’s on offer: gigs pouring concrete on construction sites, or packaging bottled drinks, or cleaning buildings. From cheap dormitories nearby, more workers, men and women, stream out. By the time the sun is up, this intersection in Majuqiao, a neighborhood on the southern outskirts of Beijing, is full of hundreds of people.包工头们骑着电动车来到这里，没下车就开始大声报出日结工资——170元！180元！早起者将包工头们团团围住，听听有什么活：在建筑工地浇筑混凝土、包装瓶装饮料或打扫建筑物。越来越多的务工男女从附近廉价的宿舍涌向这里。到太阳完全升起来时，位于北京南郊马驹桥的这个十字路口已挤满了数百人。到凌晨5点，马驹桥十字路口附近已聚集了数百人。This is Beijing’s largest day labor market, where people from around the country gather every morning for a chance at a hard day’s work. The lucky ones are whisked off in minivans, some with their own hard hats or mops in tow. The unlucky ones keep waiting for the next recruiter, or they go home. By 8 a.m., the crowd has already thinned — people’s fates, at least for that day, decided.这里是北京最大的日结工市场，每天凌晨，全国各地的人们聚集在这里，争取一天辛苦工作的机会。运气好的坐上面包车前往打工场所，有些人自带安全帽或拖把。运气不好的继续等待下一个包工头，或者回家。到早上8点时，人群已经散去——至少在那天，打工者的命运已定。Scenes like this have been unfolding for decades across China, as workers have flocked from the countryside to cities, powering the country’s rise. The markets are places for new arrivals to find a foothold and begin working for a better life. “If you run into hard times, go to Majuqiao,” says a well-known expression in Beijing.几十年来，随着务工人员从农村涌向城市，推动中国崛起，类似场景在中国各地不断展现。日结工市场是新来者找到立足点、开始为过上更好的生活努力的地方。北京一个有名的说法是：“落难必闯马驹桥。”But China’s economy is slowing. And there seem to be more hard times than Majuqiao can handle.但中国的经济增长在放缓。“落难”者似乎已经多到超过了马驹桥的应对能力。The real estate market is struggling, so construction sites are hiring fewer people and paying them less. Factories want younger and more specialized workers. That means many older laborers are being left out in the cold.房地产市场难以为继，所以建筑工地的岗位和工资都在减少。工厂想要更年轻、有更多专业技能的工人。这意味着许多年龄较大的打工者受到冷落。一些工人随身带着他们要用的工具。The slowdown shows up not only in fewer jobs, but also in the market’s thinning crowds and the makeshift places people call home. On telephone poles, fliers advertise shared rooms for as low as $3 a night. Still, under faded signs for cellphone repair shops and dumpling stalls, some people sleep on the streets.经济萧条不仅表现在工作岗位减少上，也表现在日结工市场日渐冷清，打工者临时居所的条件更差。电线杆上贴的合租房广告每晚租金最低25元。尽管如此，在手机维修店、饺子摊等店面的褪色招牌下，有些人露宿街头。The market’s soundtrack consists of bursts of negotiations with recruiters, over a lower hum of resignation.日结工市场里不时迸发出打工者与包工头谈判的声音，其中夹杂着无奈的低声抱怨。“Anyone want to be an actor?” called out a man on a scooter. He was looking for women, ages 16 to 50, to be extras on a film set.“有人想当演员吗？”一个骑着电动车的男子喊道。他在找年龄在16岁到50岁之间的女性去片场当临时演员。A crowd pressed in around him, demanding to know how much it would pay (about $14), for how long (two to three hours) and whether they’d have to get to the set, about an hour away, on their own (yes). Most of the women walked away, grumbling that it wasn’t worth it. The recruiter shrugged and nosed his scooter to another spot in the crowd.一群人将他围住，大声询问给多少钱（100元），工作多长时间（两到三个小时），以及她们是否需要自己找办法去大约一个小时车程外的片场（是的）。大多数女性没接这个活儿，她们嘴里嘟囔着不划算。包工头耸耸肩，推着电动车走向人群中的另一个地点。One of the women who walked away was Wang Liyuan. With her ponytail and energetic voice, Ms. Wang exuded a youthful air. But the problem was that at 43, she wasn’t youthful anymore, at least not by recruiters’ standards.走开的女性当中有一位叫王丽媛（音）。她扎着马尾辫，说话时声音充满活力，浑身散发着青春气息。但问题是，她已经43岁了，至少在包工头眼里已不再年轻。“At 40, you’re already retired,” she said, shaking her head.“上了40岁就让你退休，”她摇着头说。Ms. Wang started coming to the market after she was let go in 2022 from her job making pills at a pharmaceutical factory — because, she said, of her age. But that was the same reason she struggled to find a new job. After years at the factory, her feet hurt badly if she stood for long stretches. She had not graduated from middle school, while younger competitors all had high school degrees.王女士自2022年被一家制药厂辞退后，便开始来到这个劳务市场寻找工作。她原本在药厂做药片，她说自己因年龄原因被解雇。这也是她难以找到新工作的原因。由于常年站立工作，如果站时间长了，她的脚会疼。她初中肄业，而更年轻的竞争对手们都有高中学历。中国的房地产市场难以为继，所以建筑工地的岗位和工资都在减少。一些打工者露宿街头。Even construction sites have grown picky: “They choose people like they’re choosing concubines: Are you a good worker? Are you efficient?” said Ms. Wang, who is from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.就连建筑工地也变得挑剔起来：“他们选人跟选妃差不多：你是好工人吗？干活效率高吗？”来自东北省份黑龙江的王女士说。Despite being at the market almost daily, Ms. Wang said she generally found work only four or five days a week. She earned $25 on the best days; the year before, jobs not only paid a few dollars more, but also included meals. She had stopped making pension and medical insurance payments, worried that the funds would run out of money by the time she was eligible. She had also cut down on the allowance she gave her 13-year-old son, who was in Heilongjiang with his grandparents.尽管几乎每天都去马驹桥劳务市场碰运气，但王丽媛说她每周一般只有四天或五天能找到工作。最好的日子她能挣180元；一年前的劳务费不仅更高，还管饭。她已经不再缴纳养老金和医疗保险，因为她担心，等她有资格领取时，政府的养老保险基金和医保基金将会耗尽。她也减少了给儿子的零花钱，儿子今年13岁，和外祖父母一起住在黑龙江。“Originally, I wanted to give my son a bit of a better life,” Ms. Wang said. “So much for that.”“我本来想让儿子过好一点的生活，”王女士说。“现在也顾不上了。”Still, Ms. Wang had her standards. When a man walked by advertising a job unloading postal trucks for 12 hours for about $22, she waved him off.尽管如此，王女士有自己的择业标准。当一个男子走过来说有一份卸货邮车的工作，工作12个小时，劳务费160元时，她摆手拒绝。“I know that job,” she said. (She had also worked on construction sites, as a cleaning lady and as a spa attendant.) “You have to do whatever they tell you, they give you only half an hour to eat and you can’t sit.”“我知道那份工作，”她说。（她也在建筑工地干过，当过清洁工和水疗中心的服务员。）“他们叫你干什么，你就得干什么，只给你半小时的吃饭时间，而且不能坐下来。”Indeed, though nearly everyone at Majuqiao lamented their grim job prospects, many workers said they would not take just any job — a reflection of how, as China’s living standards have improved, workers’ expectations have increased.实际上，尽管所有来马驹桥的人都抱怨工作难找，但许多工人说，他们也不会什么活都接——这反映出，随着中国生活水平的提高，工人的期望值也在提高。在十字路口向打零工者兜售廉价防护装备的人。Huo Shuxia, who had been coming to the market for four years, said she preferred day gigs over her previous long-term job at a book warehouse. Yes, gig work was unstable: She estimated that she found work only half the month. She paid about $84 a month for rent, and budgeted $2.50 a day for food. She was carrying a plastic bowl and chopsticks in a bag, which she would bring to her work site of the day, a printing factory.霍淑霞（音）来马驹桥劳务市场已经四年了，她说，与自己以前在书库的固定职位相比，她更喜欢打零工。没错，打零工不稳定：她估计自己一个月只有半个月能找到工作。她每月的房租是600元，每天的伙食费预算是18元。她随身带着一个装着塑料碗和筷子的包，准备带去当天干活的印刷厂。But she had more freedom. She could take a day off whenever she wanted. If she needed to go home to see her family in Shandong Province, she could. There was also less chance of a boss docking wages arbitrarily, or disappearing without paying.但打零工胜在有更多的自由。她想休息时就不去打工。如果需要回山东探亲，她能说走就走。也不用担心老板随意克扣工资或跑路。In her old job, she said, “you could rest only whenever they told you to.”她说，她干以前的工作时，“只有他们让你休息时，你才能休息。”Not that she had much choice. There were few steady jobs available, anyway.倒不是说她有多少选择。反正稳定的工作也很少。One down side to the lack of options is that unscrupulous middlemen can take advantage of desperate workers by taking big cuts or offering unlicensed work. The problem is so common that officials have tried to impose more control over such markets.缺少选择不利的一面是，无良中介可能会趁机剥削那些处境艰难的工人，比如提取劳务费的大头，或让工人去干没有保障的工作。这个问题如此普遍，以至于官员们已试图对日结工市场加强管理。早起者将包工头们团团围住，听他们说需要什么零工。As Ms. Huo spoke, a man wearing a yellow vest marked with the words “Market Supervision” appeared. He shooed workers out of the street and urged them to move to a newly established, government-run labor market in a parking lot about 1.5 miles away, complete with restrooms and free breakfast.就在霍女士说话的时候，一名身穿印有“市场监管”字样的黄马甲的男子出现了。他把工人们从街上赶走，叫他们去几千米外一个停车场上新建的政府运营的劳务市场，那里有卫生间，还有免费早餐。But many workers said they preferred the familiarity of the intersection over the new site, which was largely empty that morning.但许多工人说，他们更喜欢这个十字路口的熟悉环境，而不是新建的劳务市场，那里在那天早上基本上空无一人。Officials have another reason for wanting to tidy up the scene at Majuqiao: It makes plain an economic desperation that the government has mostly denied.官员们还有另一个原因要整顿马驹桥劳务市场：它让政府不大承认的经济困境暴露无遗。The market supervision worker told reporters that the government forbade media interviews in the intersection. “There are some negative things that aren’t allowed to be seen,” he said.那名市场监管工作人员对记者说，政府禁止媒体在路口采访。“有些负面的东西不允许看到，”他说。If anyone at Majuqiao seemed at ease, it was the recruiters. A little after 7 a.m., Gu Jinshan stood eating a breakfast wrap on the sidewalk. Nearby stood two dozen women whom he had hired to package fruit for 16 yuan, or about $2.20, an hour. Once Mr. Gu found two more people, he said, they’d head out.如果说马驹桥劳务市场有看似自在的人，那就是包工头了。早上7点刚过，顾金山（音）正站在人行道上吃一个早餐卷。他身边站着20几名他雇来的女子，她们的工作是包装水果，劳务费每小时16元。顾先生说，等再找到两个，大家就出发。Unlike the workers, who had been there for hours, Mr. Gu said he had arrived about 20 minutes earlier.与那些已经在那里待了几个小时的工人不同，顾先生说，他是大约20分钟前到的。“It’s easy to hire,” he said. “There are few jobs, and many people.”“招人很容易，”他说，“工作机会很少，人多的是。”Siyi Zhao对本文有研究贡献。王月眉(Vivian Wang)是《纽约时报》驻华记者，常驻北京，撰写关于中国的崛起及雄心如何塑造普通人日常生活的报道。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。