Some 10 million Chinese university graduates joined the job market this year, as the youth unemployment rate rose from 15.3 per cent in January to 19.9 per cent in July.A high school dropout, David Tong was sent to the US by his parents and learned to play freestyle football. He returned to Beijing before the Covid-19 pandemic erupted at the end of 2019.
"I told them it's a universal thing," Tong said. "In the end, they stopped blaming me and calling me a loser. And I gave my word to keep looking for a job. So far, I have not found one." In the Asia-Pacific region, 14.9 per cent of young workers are expected to be still looking for a job by the end of the year, in line with the global average, the labour agency forecast.
Globally, first-time jobseekers, school dropouts and fresh graduates with little experience are always vulnerable in the job market – especially during a crisis. A record high 10 million university graduates entered the job market this summer, increasing from 9.09 million last year, while economic growth is widely projected to miss the official target of around 5.5 per cent this year.
However, the company collapsed last month after its prepayments to suppliers were lost when several furniture makers in the Yangtze River Delta had their production suspended amid the lockdowns."Every sleepless night, I stare at the ceilings and reflect on myself. I'm just unlucky, am I? My three years in college was shadowed by Covid. And Covid destroyed my job.Zhao Xiaoshan, 44, a migrant worker from the central province of Henan thinks his 18-year-old son is hopeless.