BEIJING, March 25 Reuters A job advert from a Chinese grocery store seeking cashiers aged 18 to 30 has triggered a flood of anguished social media posts from older people scrambling to find work in a sluggish economy.

Some said the ad highlighted the plight of a huge middleaged section of the population as the government focuses on fighting high youth unemployment and finding positions for another record year of college graduates.

It39;s not easy, a commenter in the city of Ningbo in the eastern province of Zhejiang, posted on the Weibo social media platform.

The user posted a picture of the ad seeking cashiers, prompting more than 140 million views and 41,000 comments many of them emotional.

Do you think it is easy to find a job now? the Weibo netizen wrote.

I am 33 this year and have been looking for a job for three years, another Weibo user said.

There is no specific law against age discrimination, though state media last year criticised employers for discriminatory hiring practices, including seeking younger and cheaper workers, in what became widely referred to as the Curse of 35.

I39;m 29, one commenter wrote on Weibo. I39;ve been laid off three times since I graduated. Now, no one has replied to my resume even if I write I am unmarried and do not have a child.

Was it difficult to find a job when you were over 35 before? another Weibo user asked, with an accompanying emoji icon representing bitterness. Now it39;s 30 years old.

At the same time, the…