Overeducated, underpaid: China鈥檚 youth unemployment problem
Why can鈥檛 they find jobs?
More than one in five people between the ages of 16 and 24 are jobless in China according to the latest government data. But the figure could be even higher.
Millions of university graduates are struggling to find high paying jobs. So the government is encouraging them to roll up their sleeves and consider manual work in the countryside instead.
But many aren鈥檛 keen and some are ducking out of the rat race all together, sharing memes of themselves ripping up their degrees. We hear from Joy, who says that out of her class of 32, only around a third have found full-time jobs since graduating in the summer.
Laura Bicker, a 大象传媒 correspondent based in Beijing, explains what led to this point, and what might happen next.
Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk
WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6
Presenter: William Lee Adams
Producers: Mora Morrison and Emily Horler
Editors: Verity Wilde and Simon Peeks
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Broadcasts
- Wed 10 Jan 2024 18:50GMT大象传媒 World Service News Internet
- Thu 11 Jan 2024 03:50GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia, West and Central Africa & East Asia only
Podcast
-
What in the World
Helping you make sense of what鈥檚 happening in your world.