With record unemployment, China's youth confront bleak job market

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BEIJING — Rather than celebrating finishing university, this summer Chinese graduates shared photos of themselves theatrically throwing their degrees into bins, underscoring the bleak outlook as youth unemployment sits at a record high.

The jobless rate could rise even further this summer, analysts warned, providing another headache for the government as it tries to jumpstart the country's sluggish post-Covid economy.

The 24-year-old told AFP he passed three rounds of interviews at a major tech company in Shenzhen, dubbed China's Silicon Valley, before the employer said it had frozen recruitments. Mr Larry Hu, Macquarie Group's chief China economist, warned that the figure could increase further in July when 11.6 million more college graduates start looking for work.

However, a hoped-for raft of stimulus measures for the economy, including help to boost the jobs market, fell flat, as did an interest rate cut Tuesday, which was less than expected. "There were dozens of fintech start-ups when I entered university, but many have disappeared over the past two years after the government tightened rules governing the sector," she said.

The pictures are a reference to the now-prevalent counterculture of"lying flat" — young people rejecting the rat race of urban living for a simpler, less professionally ambitious life.There is generally a mismatch in skills possessed by young job seekers and the demands of the labour market, Chatham House's Yu said.

 

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