China's youth faces record high unemployment at 20.4% in April: Report

President Xi tells youth to "eat bitterness" and to value the suffering, while the youth struggle to find employment in a shrinking job market

The Chinese economy continues to struggle in its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic as a study reveals the nation hit a record high of 20.4 per cent unemployment rate in April.

The statistics were announced just a month before 11.6 million students are getting ready to graduate from universities and vocational schools and enter the workforce, stated a report by ANI. This could mean one in every five people could be unemployed.

In comparison, the US youth employment rate reached a peak in 2020 at 14.85 per cent, but settled at 9.57 per cent in 2021. Today the US youth unemployment rate stands at 6.5 per cent, the report added.

India’s own youth unemployment rate in urban areas has been steadily decreasing from 20.2 per cent in 2022 to 17.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2022-23, according to the periodic labour force survey (PLFS). 

According to ANI, Nancy Qian, a professor of economics at Northwestern University, explained that the zero-Covid policy imposed during the lockdowns in China were harsher in comparison to the containment strategies adopted by other countries. Qian added that this measure was “economically damaging” to the nation and, subsequently, the job market.

The youth of the nation that is preparing to enter the job market was especially taken aback when President Xi Jinping asked them to “eat bitterness”. This is a translation of a local colloquial expression which means to endure hardship. Fresh graduates have also been reportedly hearing the same from their teachers and parents, pressing them to take on manual labour instead of the jobs they have earned qualifications for.

According to the New York Times, graduates argue that they have worked hard to receive admission and earn their degrees just to find longer work hours, low pay scales, and a shrinking job market.

The report also adds that China’s youth may be struggling with this new reality as they grew up during a time of prosperity. Furthermore, the Communist party takes the unemployment of youth seriously as they believe that idle youth can threaten their rule. Highlighting that Mao Zedong had sent more than 16 million urban youths to work in the fields during the cultural revolution, including the current President Xi.