Chinese youth fear grim post-COVID future
Mandy Liu, a 21-year-old university student in Beijing, believes anyone who has lived in China during the pandemic can see that the country’s future is looking increasingly uncertain.
COVID-19 restrictions were stifling, and employment opportunities were grim. She is set to graduate next year with a degree in tourism management and has submitted more than 80 applications for jobs. She has not received a single offer.
Many young people had followed what the Chinese Communist Party told them to do, only to be left disillusioned, Liu said. “What we are seeing is that people are struggling to survive.”
That discontent bubbled over in recent weeks as throngs of students, job seekers and young professionals stormed the streets in major cities across China to protest the government’s iron-fisted COVID-19 rules. The unrest brought into view the party’s long-standing concern that a shortage of jobs and economic opportunities for young people posed a threat to social stability.
On Wednesday, Beijing caved to the protesters’ demands and relaxed many of its “zero COVID” restrictions. But the bigger and more vexing problem remains: An ugly job market with too many applicants jostling for too few jobs could mean that China’s decades of economic prosperity may soon be out of reach for many young people.
Youth unemployment is still close to the highest levels on record, with another 11.6 million college graduates preparing to join the workforce next year. “The students want to protest, because we do feel that our situation is getting worse,” said Liu, who did not participate in the recent protests.
COVID-19 restrictions drained momentum from an economy already reeling from a collapse in the property market. A government crackdown on fast-growing industries such as technology and private education has sapped opportunities in the private sector, intensifying competition for civil servant jobs and admission into graduate schools.
The narrowing prospects have betrayed the expectations of a generation of young people raised in relative prosperity as beneficiaries of an ascendant economy that provided steady employment and rising incomes for their parents. Students were told that by studying hard, they, too, could enjoy a better life.
“The promise was if you educate yourself, you will get a good-paying job. That is no longer materializing,” said Max Zenglein, chief economist at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin. “To be the first generation that is going to be disappointed, that creates a lot of emotional pressure.”
When Xi Jinping, China’s leader, addressed the Communist Party congress in 2017, he declared that “a nation will prosper only when its young people thrive.” He repeated the mantra again in October before the start of a precedent-defying third term, adding that China’s youths were “filled with greater optimism and enterprise.”
But the words rang hollow. Frustration was building with a growing number of youths out of work and the draconian COVID-19 restrictions limiting the opportunities for young people to work, travel and socialize.
In July, the jobless rate for people between the ages of 16 and 24 reached nearly 20 percent — the highest level since China started announcing the figure in 2018. The rate has ticked down, but it is still triple the national average.
The graduates who have secured jobs are paid less. The average monthly salary for 2022 college graduates who found a job was 12 percent less than what 2021 graduates received, according to a survey by Chinese job site Zhaopin.