GUANGZHOU, July 6 -- As China's job market continues to tighten and lay-offs ripple through private-sector industries, unemployed workers are increasingly seeking refuge in an unlikely place: local Communist Party community service centres.

These centres - typically frequented by retirees or left largely unused - have become informal sanctuaries for jobseekers looking for a quiet, stable environment to regroup, according to details from the South China Morning Post .

One of them is Joey Zhang, a former brand planner in her 30s who lost her job after her advertising firm cut staff amid rising use of artificial intelligence in marketing work. She now spends her mornings at a Guangzhou Party centre with her laptop, describing long, anxious...