More than one in five urban youths in China are unemployed, and official statistics may not paint a full picture. With stiff competition for jobs, employers are increasingly asking for a master’s degree, even for roles that don’t justify it. The programme Insight finds out how China’s young jobseekers are coping.
From a slowing economy to a mismatch in skills versus available jobs, Insight explores the reasons for China’s high youth unemployment rate, through the eyes of those who are young and jobless.
China's unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-olds has reached a record high of 21.3 per cent. This is four times higher than the overall urban unemployment of 5.2 per cent, and it’s also the sixth consecutive increase since January. Dr Sarah Tong, Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute, NUS, shares a
no, i m not concerned. look, i think that we. you know, our quarrel is not with the chinese people. we don t seek to contain or suppress their legitimate economic aspirations. however, where they engage in cyber theft or hacks that involve planting malware in our critical infrastructure in the united states, where they, you know, engage in practices and aggression, especially military aggression against taiwan or in the south china sea or against even india in the himalayas. the point is that that is not the type of behaviour that s consistent with the international rules based order. where we have differences, let s resolve them peacefully and let s play by rules that make sense. finally, i would just say the chinese economy is sliding right now. their youth unemployment rate is 22%. their real estate market is tanking. they re on the verge of deflation, and their number one export in the world right now is high net worth individuals, people who are fleeing the country because of the