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| A job fair in Tianjin, China. (Source: Xinhua) |
According to statistics from the South China Morning Post on December 16, 2022, the urban unemployment rate in China increased by 5.7% in November. In addition, the unemployment rate among teenagers aged 16-24 was at 17.1%.
According to Reuters, China's Ministry of Education also forecasts that the number of new university graduates entering the labor market in 2023 will be at an all-time high. Specifically, the country will have 11.58 million university graduates by June 2023, an increase of 820,000 compared to 2022.
Lower your expectations to find a job
Luong Hoa Hieu has a bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics. After graduating, she spent 2 years applying for a job at a Chinese technology company but was unsuccessful.
She sought opportunities in the service and sales fields. Unsuccessful, she applied for jobs as an assistant in a bakery and a beauty salon. Despite her high education, Liang Huaxiao had to lower her expectations to find a job.
Another 25-year-old girl in Thai Nguyen, China also fell into a similar situation.
She said: "It's very difficult to find a job now, so I told my family that I was willing to do manual labor. After hearing that, my mother cried because she felt sorry for me."
With a master's degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Queensland (Australia), after graduating, Ta Cach Anh also worked in a grocery store. In February 2023, she decided to return to Kunming, Yunnan Province (China) to take the English teacher recruitment exam.
China's youth unemployment rate is estimated to be around 20.4% as of April 2023. Mr. Wang, 23, is a programming graduate who earns 3,000 yuan (US$440) a month from delivering food part-time in Jining City, eastern China.
"The threshold to enter the programming industry keeps increasing. I couldn't find a job at a big tech company. I also didn't like being an unpaid intern at a small company. I was really tired so I moved back to my hometown to focus on studying for the civil service exam," he shared.
Ambition does not match reality
Technology, education, real estate and finance are the industries that most new graduates go into. But these industries are all facing regulatory tightening. Although some measures have been lifted, the business recovery has been slow.
As a result, Chinese media have urged unemployed graduates to put their ambitions on hold and instead take up manual labor. The national media has even reported on many university graduates earning money by selling street food or growing fruit...
In March 2023, the story of some recent graduates who said they would rather be unemployed than screwing screws in factories caused a stir. In response, the Chinese Youth League encouraged the current generation to "take off their vests, roll up their sleeves and go to work in the fields."
Therefore, recently Chinese media has encouraged young graduates to "roll up their sleeves" and get to work.
The story has received mixed reactions on social media. Unemployed young people say the government needs to do more to create jobs for educated youth.
Meanwhile, Beijing has urged state-owned enterprises to hire more graduates. The Chinese government has also begun expanding vocational schools to fill a shortage in high-tech manufacturing.
Several localities including Shanghai are offering jobs to companies hiring 2023 graduates.
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