Plastic surgery rates inflate as Chinese job market gets saggy

Which would you rather hire? (Hint: it's the same person)

"I've been surprised how busy it is," says Dr. Liao Yuhua, president of Shanghai Time Plastic Surgery Hospital, one of the largest in the city. Business began to increase last November, she says, and in recent weeks has been running 40% higher than a year ago. At its busiest in January, Liao says, her team of 10 surgeons was doing as many as 100 procedures a day, raising noses, cutting eyelids and chiseling angular faces into the shape of smooth goose eggs...

Overall statistics on cosmetic surgeries aren't available, but nearly a dozen leading Chinese hospitals reported similarly strong business since late last fall, about the period when the global financial crisis began to take its toll on China's economy and the labor market.

The reason for the surge: people on the job hunt! While Chinese employers are not legally allowed to discriminate on religion, race or sex (not that it doesn't happen anyway with alarming frequency), they're allowed to be basically as exclusionary as they want when it comes to ugliness.

Resumes demand pictures. Employment postings sometimes list weight and height requirements. It's no wonder that frustrated job hunters are trying anything they can - even going under the knife - to get a leg up.

Oh well, at least it's cheaper to do here than anywhere else, eh?

Previously on Shanghaiist:
What I did on my summer vacation... plastic surgery!
Plastic surgery docs not qualified to slice and dice
Shanghainese people pay to 'lose face'