‘This generation doesn't want to be making the world’s shirts’: Why China’s jobless youth woes could persist
With over 12 million university graduates expected in 2025, the gap between jobseekers’ expectations and available opportunities continues to widen.
The entrance of a job fair held at an antique market in the north of Beijing, Mar 7, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Hu Chushi)
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BEIJING: On a brisk Friday morning, 26-year-old Li Mengqi navigated the crowded lobby of the Lishuiqiao Talent Market in Beijing.
Clutching her résumé tightly, she moved deliberately from booth to booth, pausing to speak earnestly with recruiters amid the busy buzz of young jobseekers.
Li is hopeful yet anxious. “The competition for interviews is quite intense since there are many outstanding candidates, especially in Beijing," she told CNA.
After graduating from the Shanghai Institute of Technology eight months ago, Li moved to the capital in search of work but has been struggling to find a job.
For her, the job search is more than simply landing any position. It is about finding the right balance - closely aligned with her chemical engineering major, in a city she enjoys, such as Beijing, yet still close enough to her hometown in Hebei.
"I’m quite attached to my family - I’d prefer to be closer to my parents so that I can go back on weekends to take care of them."
The Lishuiqiao job fair featured over 30 company booths, but most offered positions in sales and insurance. Specialised roles aligned with Li’s training in chemical engineering were scarce, highlighting a broader mismatch plaguing young graduates nationwide.
“High pay and low workload - I want it all," joked 22-year-old Hu Die nervously, when speaking to CNA at the job fair last Friday (Mar 7).
The design graduate from Harbin University of Science and Technology is also struggling to secure roles relevant to her specialisation.
“I’m not interested in sales because I don’t want to waste my potential, (but) I might eventually lower my expectations,” said Hu, who declined to provide her real name.
The reality of job-hunting for the past eight months since graduation has been “very different” from what she imagined.
“I'm worried I might run into scammers,” added Hu. “I feel the overall prospects have been quite bleak; the market seems rather sparse, which has deterred me from fully pursuing certain opportunities.”
MORE GRADUATES, FEWER JOB PROSPECTS
Li and Hu’s struggles at the job fair reveal a deeper employment crisis confronting China’s youth - a mismatch of jobseekers’ expectations and available vacancies.
“One of the big issues right now is the distance and expectations between … the hard work (they) put in as students, and the job waiting for (them) on the other side,” said Zak Dychtwald, who is founder of the Young China Group, a think tank based in Shanghai.
With a record 12.22 million university graduates expected this year - up from about 9 million in 2021 - the Chinese government has acknowledged the urgency to address structural challenges facing the job market.
“The mismatch between the supply and demand of human resources has become more pronounced,” said China’s Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping at a press conference on Sunday (Mar 9) at the sidelines of the annual Two Sessions.
The unemployment rate among young people aged 16 to 24 declined to 15.7 per cent in December last year, after peaking at 18.8 per cent in August due to a surge of fresh graduates, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
However, the circumstances on the ground remains daunting.
Yun Zhou, assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, observed that while graduates “from elite schools with very in-demand college majors and skills such as automation or AI” are much sought after, many others find themselves struggling to secure relevant roles in an increasingly competitive job market.
It doesn’t help that employment opportunities in traditional sectors are also dwindling.
“Industries that have traditionally been the major employers of college graduates, such as internet startups and education, have also seen shrinkage in recent years. So there is a profound structural reason to that,” she told CNA.
Chen Yuyan, 26, experienced this issue firsthand.
After graduating from Guangdong Food and Drug Vocational College in 2022, she ended up in an unexpected job - sorting parcels at a courier branch.
“Many companies truly require candidates with experience - people who can start working immediately. As fresh graduates, we simply don’t have enough experience to meet their demands. They often say they don’t have the resources to train a newcomer, and the salaries offered are really low.”
UNEMPLOYMENT VS UNDEREMPLOYMENT
China's youth unemployment has far-reaching implications, affecting not only the economic landscape but also the social fabric of the nation, say analysts.
The term "rotten-tail kids" has emerged to describe young graduates who, unable to secure jobs commensurate with their education, find themselves in low-paying positions or reliant on parental support. This term draws a parallel to "rotten-tail buildings" - unfinished homes that have plagued China's economy since 2021.
Terming this issue as the "good enough job problem", Dychtwald further noted underemployment - where graduates take jobs that underutilise their skills - as a major concern.
“There’s a growing gap between graduate expectations and the jobs available.”
This discrepancy doesn't just affect income - it alters the young people's worldview, dampening their morale and ambition.
“Unemployment is obviously what is the biggest threat to political stability," Dychtwald said. "But I don't believe that underemployment is less severe when you're thinking about the morale and ambition of a generation.”
The psychological blow has been particularly acute since the pandemic.
“The COVID moment, which was a longer moment in China than elsewhere, totally sent an economic shock through the spine of this generation. And they haven't recovered from that,” Dychtwald added.
“What they're looking for is a sense of hopefulness.”
Eli Friedman, professor of Global Labor and Work at Cornell University, pointed to a cultural shift underlying youth attitudes toward employment.
Unlike their parents’ generation, today’s young graduates are more resistant to accepting lower-quality or unstable positions, even under economic pressure.
“I don't think that if you are 22 years old, 23 years old and graduating from a college in China, (you’re) going sell trinkets on the street and save up, and then use that to start a small business. And I don't think that's where people are just at, culturally,” Friedman said.
This attitude shift has given rise to concepts like “lying flat” or "tangping" in Chinese, where young adults opt out of the hyper-competitive job market altogether.
Some youths are unwilling “to take whatever job is available” after having grown increasingly disillusioned with the traditional model of career advancement, Friedman explained.
Lai Jiawen, a 32-year-old who holds a Master's degree from Peking University, is one of them. After working for several years, she now feels emotionally drained.
“Frankly speaking, at this stage I don’t have a definitive plan. My main focus right now is simply to take a break and ‘lie flat’. The past seven or eight years of work have left me physically and mentally exhausted, and I’ve lost sight of the meaning in life - and even in work.”
“Lying flat”, however, is not a long-term solution.
University of Michigan’s Yun highlighted the deep psychological scars inflicted by prolonged unemployment, particularly among graduates who were promised stable futures.
“The inability to find jobs creates not only economic insecurity but also a loss of dignity and purpose. For graduates, this undermines the narrative they've been promised - that education would lead directly to better livelihoods,” she stated.
For Friedman, he still believes that a lot of people are going to be thrown into some sort of menial temporary work.
“I think that obviously in general, people in China do not have a choice. People need jobs to survive.”
“That doesn't feel to me like a good strategy for economic development, though. You need something sort of longer term.”
“THIS GENERATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE MAKING THE WORLD’S SHIRTS”
China’s 2025 Government Work Report detailed plans to address youth unemployment, emphasising expanded job opportunities, targeted financial relief, and renewed support for entrepreneurship.
Specific measures include unemployment insurance premium refunds, tax and fee cuts, employment subsidies, and direct support for labour-intensive industries.
“These will absolutely help. I actually don't think these should be underappreciated,” Dychtwald said, referring to policies like employment subsidies and tax relief measures.
However, he quickly tempered his optimism, noting the temporary nature of these initiatives and likening them to “consumption coupons”.
“People use them, but it doesn't necessarily change their attitude towards consumption. Just as employers, if they become too reliant (on these measures), the moment that these dissipate, then the people might be out of a job again.”
While the subsidies and tax breaks are likely to stimulate short-term hiring, they do little to address the deeper structural mismatch in the labour market, Dychtwald cautioned.
“Subsidies and tax breaks will absolutely encourage companies to hire more graduates, but it doesn't guarantee long term stability or career progression.”
“Many graduates still struggle to find stable, well-paying jobs that match their qualifications.”
On the bright side, Dychtwald highlighted the strategic shift toward tech, AI, and advanced manufacturing as potentially beneficial for graduates.
“The most promising initiatives are tech and AI and industry expansion. Absolutely, the DeepSeek one was a global win and a really legitimate morale boost for China,” he said.
He further acknowledged the value of vocational training programmes, particularly those emphasising digital skills and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), as aligned with China's broader ambitions.
“Vocational and skills training is interesting, especially the expansion of digital skills, coding and STEM training, because that's really the jobs that China wants more of,” Dychtwald remarked.
But for now, China’s successes in advanced manufacturing, AI, and green technology have ironically contributed little to employment growth, as Friedman points out.
Specifically, he highlighted the automation trend: “The industrial policy, I think, quite explicitly, did not include a labour policy. It's really focusing on winning in these industries without much of a sense about what it means for employment.”
“Many of these industries … are actually hostile to employment production because they also talk about automation throughout all of that.”
Using the automotive sector as an example, Friedman says industrial transformation is reducing reliance on manpower, even in traditionally labour-intensive industries.
“My understanding is that new auto plants in China are much more automated … so it requires less labour.”
China has set a target to create over 12 million new urban jobs this year, as detailed in the Government Work Report.
The key, however, is whether these jobs match the aspirations of young, educated graduates, says Dychtwald.
“This generation doesn't want to be making the world’s shirts.”
Despite a record number of graduates entering the job market this year, China still faces a shortage of skilled personnel, especially in the manufacturing sector.
According to a China Daily report from last July, which cited a manufacturing talent development guide issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments, China may face a shortage of approximately 30 million skilled workers in 10 critical manufacturing sectors by 2025.
“The mismatch between jobs available and jobs this young generation wants is on a 'China scale’ … those jobs are (not only) on the low-end of the value chain, but also in the leading edge, skilled, emerging industries," stated Dychtwald.
Meanwhile, Friedman underscored another policy area requiring attention: improving geographic labour mobility. He noted persistent hurdles from China's hukou residency system, which still restricts young graduates' ability to move freely to job-rich regions.
“China's economic geography continues to be very unequal,” Friedman explained.
“Wealth creation and job creation are all still highly concentrated, especially in the super large first-tier cities … there are still these kinds of labour market imperfections obstructing a free flow of labour.”
Yun from the University of Michigan noted the limitations of centralised policy-making in addressing the nuanced challenges faced by China’s diverse group of graduates.
“Economic dynamics, population dynamics, and people's life chances often have their own ebb and flow that is tremendously difficult for a heavy handed central planning to be effective,” Yun said.
FEMALE GRADUATES BATTLE HIRING BIAS
Amid China’s intensifying youth unemployment crisis, one particularly stark and troubling dimension stands out: the discrimination faced by female graduates entering the workforce.
Yun highlighted that discrimination against young women is deeply rooted in societal and employer attitudes.
“Employers view young women as quote-unquote, less ideal workers in that they believe these women are distracted by family responsibilities,” Yun said.
Chinese women today face contradictory pressures, creating what Yun described as “impossible choices.”
On one hand, society and family pressure them toward marriage and motherhood, defining these roles as integral to their identities. On the other hand, the expectation persists that they remain economically productive.
“We know that women in China still carry the predominant lion's share of care work and housework. All these different pulls and expectations, contradictory in nature, create this sense of incompatibility as they try to envision what their own place in society can be,” explained Yun.
Friedman also describes this phenomenon as reflective of “contradictory impulses” within government policy itself.
He points out that China’s government has historically championed high female labour market participation. Yet simultaneously, as the demographic crisis deepens, official messaging increasingly pressures women into earlier marriage and motherhood.
“When you have that kind of messaging in a context where there's very few legal protections for women in the workplace … it puts them in a very difficult position.”
As Friedman noted: “Discrimination against women with respect to childbearing is extremely well-documented … you will see employers still advertising jobs and saying you can only take this job if you're not going to have a baby.”
For young graduates like Xiao Duo, a 21-year-old Business English major from Hunan Modern Logistics Vocational and Technical College, this reality resonates painfully.
“Women lack a sense of security,” she said, explaining that employers often prefer men due to fears of women taking maternity leave.
Xiao says the discrimination is even more common in rural areas, compounded by traditional attitudes.
“Even though they have received higher education, they are unable to realise their self-worth.”
Yun urged policymakers to prioritise legal protection against gender-based workplace discrimination.
“The protection against various forms of labour discrimination is and should be at the heart, as we think about the labour landscape that young adults face in contemporary China.”
As Friedman remarked, “Women are outperforming men academically. Yet women continue to underperform men in the labour market.”
For Xiao Duo, the struggle is worsened by the stigma surrounding her difficult job search.
“Most (graduates) are forced by circumstances to take jobs that are completely inconsistent with their true value, and they are further derided by traditional views that claim studying is useless.”
Analysts say that without meaningful, rigorously enforced anti-discrimination measures, even well-educated women will remain marginalised, their talents undervalued and potential unrealised.
NAVIGATING AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Despite the challenges, Dychtwald remains cautiously optimistic about China's unique advantage in adapting swiftly to the youth unemployment crisis.
“This is a global problem. This is no longer a China problem,” Dychtwald said.
“In many ways, I think China is far more equipped to handle this just because of the adaptiveness of the population.”
He emphasised the importance of aligning university education more closely with industry needs through direct collaboration, internships, and vocational training - practical measures that foster genuine skill-building.
Chen, the 26-year-old courier worker from Guangdong, looks to the future with a sense of practical optimism.
“I view this courier sorting job as a transitional phase - a job that’s conveniently located near my home and provides a decent income, giving me time to consider my future career direction.”
“My expectation for the future,” Chen said quietly, “is first to support myself, and then to pursue my dream of photography.”
Xiao Duo summed up the uncertainty confronting many of her peers, including herself.
“Facing fierce employment competition, I feel rather helpless because more and more people are graduating and entering society.”
“There are simply too many people, while the number of available positions remains limited. Many companies tend to hire candidates with work experience, and the wages offered are low - offering a salary of 2,000 yuan for work that should warrant 5,000 yuan.”
“It seems that society has no shortage of college graduates, leaving me feeling lost in such an environment.”
