BEIJING — Applied maths graduate Liang Huaxiao tried to land a job with one of China's tech giants for two years. Then she tried customer service and sales. Then she applied for assistant roles in a bakery and in a beauty parlour.
Economists expect such examples to become increasingly common in coming years, as a glut of university graduates and a shortage of factory labour due to an ageing workforce deepen China's job market imbalances. The industries most popular among fresh Chinese graduates, such as tech, education, real estate and finance, have all faced regulatory crackdowns in recent years. Some of the measures have been rolled back, but business sentiment has been slow to recover: private investment rose only 0.4 per cent in January-April, while state investment rose 9.4 per cent.
President Xi Jinping repeatedly exhorted young people to "seek hardships" in a recent state media article emphasising his suffering during the Cultural Revolution. But the message hardly resonates with today's youth who take prosperity for granted. The service industries at the forefront of China's post-pandemic recovery offer few high-skilled roles.