The State of Youth Employment in China: "Extremely Poor Job Quality"

The job fair was packed with people, but only a few actually found jobs. (Video screenshot)

[People News] Amid economic slowdown and rising unemployment, China’s Ministry of Education and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently held a joint meeting to address the issue of employment. The meeting revealed that the number of college graduates in 2025 is expected to reach a record high of 12.22 million, an increase of 430,000 from this year. But how do young Chinese view the current employment pressures?

"Pure Drudgery: 14 to 15 Hours a Day"

According to Radio Free Asia, Matt, a 2023 pharmacy graduate from Guangxi Medical University, shared his experience. He described the bleak employment situation among his peers: "By the time we received our diplomas, nearly half of my class was still unemployed." Matt himself managed to secure an internship, but the conditions were far from ideal: "I interned at a lab in Shenzhen doing organic synthesis. It was pure drudgery—14 to 15 hours of work a day—for a monthly pay of just 5,000 yuan."

He showed reporters a job posting from his class’s QQ group in June 2023. A pharmaceutical company in Guangxi was hiring interns, offering accommodation, insurance, and a monthly stipend of only 2,800 yuan. Moreover, interns had to pay 140 yuan monthly for meals, and the position was exclusively for male applicants.

Matt noted that the job prospects for the next graduating cohort were equally grim: "Overall, the quality of employment is extremely poor. It’s not that you can’t find a job—it’s just that most are in sales or as pharmaceutical representatives, with salaries as low as 3,000 to 4,000 yuan."

"If You Can’t Find a Job, Deliver Food or Work Security"

Xu, a student from Shanghai currently studying in Minnesota, USA, remarked on his high school peers’ views about higher education in China: "They think a college degree is worthless if it doesn’t lead to a job. Many plan to pursue graduate studies or study abroad."

Xu observed that while many of his classmates aspired to work in the IT industry, the prospects for college graduates in China were bleak. He credited his family’s decision to send him abroad as a wise choice: "If I or my classmates graduated from a Chinese university, we might end up unable to find jobs. If that happens, the fallback is delivering food or working as a security guard."

According to official statistics, the urban unemployment rate for youth aged 16–24 was 17.1%, 18.8%, and 17.6% in July, August, and September this year, respectively. In recent years, there have been increasing reports of college graduates taking jobs as food delivery drivers or security guards.

Ms. Chen, who has worked in Shenzhen’s new media industry for years, noted a growing trend of frequent job-hopping among recent graduates. She attributed this to high workplace pressure and low salaries, typically only a few thousand yuan: "They switch jobs constantly, hoping for better pay. But job-hopping requires experience, and if someone lacks experience, their salary growth will remain minimal."

In such circumstances, many young people choose to "rely on parents" and "lie flat," giving up the pursuit of better opportunities: "These people generally live off financial support from their families and stop striving for better jobs because, in any case, most jobs available offer poor conditions."