China’s youth unemployment rate hits record 18.2% amid COVID lockdowns, collapsing growth
Another 10 million fresh university graduates set to hit the job market in July
Despair and panic are setting in across China as worsening economic conditions and strict adherence to its Zero-COVID Policy have scuttled career plans for recent graduates.
Official reports show that the unemployment rate for China’s 16-24 year-olds has hit a record high of 18.2%. And, with a record 10.76 million new graduates set to enter the career market in the next two months, local experts see only higher rates of unemployment ahead.
Exacerbating the issue is the CPC’s crackdown on some of the most dynamic sectors of the economy over the past 20 months: internet firms, education technology and tutoring companies, and property developers.
And, as Bloomberg notes
It’s no longer clear a college degree brings financial benefits. According to (a) Zhaopin survey, the average starting salary for those who got job offers will be 6,507 yuan per month ($974). By comparison, a delivery worker for the likes of Meituan could earn as much as 10,000 yuan.
In the past, foreign firms would be picking up the slack, eagerly scooping up these grads at 20 cents on the dollar for what they would command upon graduation from universities in North America or Europe. But with foreign enterprises dramatically cutting back on investment and expansion in the Mainland, and instead shifting supply chains to more reliable and less expensive countries, it appears robust domestic growth will be required to absorb these millions of graduates into good careers.