A worker wears a protective mask as he guards a gate at a construction site in a shopping area. File photo: GETTY IMAGES/KEVIN FRAYER
“I’m worried,” said Bai, who graduated this month and did not want to name the firm to stay on good terms. “If I can’t find a job, I’m not sure what I’ll do.” There is no script for how such high youth unemployment will affect Chinese society. Struggling to find jobs goes against what educated young people have come to expect after decades of breakneck growth, and it is awkward for China’s stability-obsessed Communist Party, especially in a year when President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a precedent-breaking third leadership term.
Rockee Zhang, MD for Greater China at recruitment firm Randstad, says China’s entry-level jobs market is worse even than during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, estimating new jobs falling 20%-30% from last year. “This year is a low point, the lowest I’ve seen,” said Zhang, who has been a recruiter for two decades.China’s ministry of human resources & social security and the ministry of education did not respond to requests for comment.
Private education, another sector which drew regulatory scrutiny, parted with tens of thousands of workers as well. The largest firm in the industry, New Oriental, has announced 60,000 layoffs. Jason Wang, a Beijing-based headhunter who has worked mostly with tech companies in recent years, is now recruiting mainly for state-backed telecommunication firms. “The golden age of internet companies’ hiring sprees has ended,” Wang said.