The “straw man” generation. “It should be a top priority.”
In recent years, Xi Jinping’s regulations in relation to big tech companies and after-school tutoring, industries that relied heavily on college graduates, have worsened job prospects for people entering the workforce.
In May, Xi said boosting youth employment should be the country’s “top priority.”
The nearly 12 million students who graduated in June made the competition even fiercer.
Disappointed Chinese Gen Zers have popularized the term “straw generation” on Chinese social media. Lan wei (literally: “rotten tail”) is slang for something that has been started but not properly completed. For example, millions of homes have been bought but unfinished by developers for years, which has caused the country’s property market to continue to slow down.
The overall unemployment rate reported by the China Bureau of Statistics was 5.2 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from June.
China’s state-run media outlet Global Times has called the country’s employment situation “largely stable,” citing growth in high-tech industries and the service sector. Youth unemployment has been blamed on a “seasonal increase” caused by the influx of new students into the job market.
China has a problem. Youth unemployment is rising
Unemployment among Chinese people aged 25 to 29 was 6.5 percent in July, after 6.4 percent in June and 6.6 percent in May. Unemployment among people aged 30 to 59 was the lowest at 3.9 percent, with the figure hovering around 4 percent since reporting resumed in December.
Younger Chinese citizens are struggling to find work amid weak consumer spending, one of the factors weighing on the world’s second-largest economy.
Given that this demographic is also the most willing to spend, putting money in their hands would be an effective form of economic stimulus in a country that continues to struggle with low consumer confidence, Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University in London, previously told Newsweek.
Text published in the American magazine “Newsweek”. Title, lead and subtitles by the editors of “Newsweek Polska”.
