'Can't sleep at night': China's youth worry about tough job market

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

job in her chosen field of market research despite sending out thousands of CVs to Chinese employers. The months-long search has taken an emotional toll on the 23-year-old, who had ironically conducted a survey on jobseeking anxiety as part of her university studies. «After graduating, I've found that the pressure is really huge,» she told AFP at a recruitment fair in Beijing this weekend, declining to provide her full name for fear of repercussions.

«For every ten resumes I send out I get one response,» she said. Zhang is one of millions of graduates entering China's job market at a time of soaring youth unemployment. Recently, the figure has hit a record every month, with 21.3 percent of people aged 16 to 24 jobless in June.

Authorities on Tuesday abruptly said they would stop publishing age-related employment data, prompting public scepticism and concern over youth joblessness in the world's second-largest economy. At career fairs in Beijing this week, attendees described a challenging landscape for inexperienced candidates hoping to land their first or second jobs. Yang Yao, an unemployed 21-year-old with experience in media, was disappointed after browsing advertisements at a fair in central Beijing on Thursday where employers mostly sought staff for low-paying sales and administrative positions.

He had quit his previous job in eastern China's Zhejiang province to move closer to his family in Beijing, and was now wracked with anxiety about his prospects after a fruitless few weeks of searching. «Every night I find myself worrying, what if I can't find a job what will I do about living costs? And I can't sleep at night,» he told AFP. — Post-Covid slump — China has released a raft of indicators in recent months