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SLIM PROSPECTS
Analysts blame a slowing economy crippled by COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as the large cohort entering the labour force during the graduating season in July and August, for the slim prospects facing China’s youth.
Official data does not track unemployment among rural youth, and the real jobless population could be more than double the official number, estimated Zhuang Bo, an economist at research group TS Lombard.
Blue-collar workers, too, are struggling to find work as growth in the manufacturing and construction sectors cools.
“The reality is more serious than what the data shows,” said Ho-fung Hung, who specialises in China’s political economy at Johns Hopkins University.
“If the problem continues without remedy, it will easily spread social disorders.”
At a job fair in the tech hub Shenzhen, long lines of anxious parents and young graduates waited for a chance to chat with recruiters.
But headhunters at the fair said they were cherry-picking graduates from top universities, because only a few positions were available.
“My goal was to work in Shenzhen, in China’s Silicon Valley,” Luo Wen, a computer science graduate, told AFP.
“But after more than four months of searching, I’m ready to work even in a smaller city, for less pay.”
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