China's rising youth unemployment: Part 1

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is trouble brewing for the world’s second largest economy?

China’s exports are down, the property market’s creaking, and millions of young people - more than one in five - are officially classed as unemployed.

It's not just the lack of jobs, it's the quality of employment that's now on offer - much of it informal in sectors like hospitality or food delivery.

In the first of two programmes assessing the economic challenges, Ed Butler asks, what's gone wrong?

Produced and presented by Ed Butler.

(Image: A job-seeker look for employment at a job fair for college graduates in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province in Feb 2023. Credit: ZHONG NAN / Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm very excited to be hosting What in the World a new daily podcast from the BBC World Service, where we try to help you make sense of the world around you, of the big things that are happening, the small things that are happening and everything in between. Search for What in the World, wherever you get your BBC podcasts, and hit subscribe.
0:24.0	Hi there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service. Today, in the
0:29.7	first of two programmes, looking at China's economy, we assess how the struggle to find jobs is
0:35.9	afflicting millions of graduates at the moment.
0:40.2	In the past two weeks, I sent out more than 40 resumes, but I only got two interviews.
0:46.3	I feel like the candidates going for these places are much more outstanding than me.
0:50.4	They've graduated from top universities.
0:53.0	I fell anxious at times, but I try to control my feelings.
0:56.0	And what can the Chinese government do to change the situation?
1:01.5	Year by year, the levels of unemployment are rising.
1:05.4	There's a mismatch between people that want work and the kinds of jobs that are available.
1:10.9	And it also tells us that it might be something fundamentally wrong with the economy,
1:15.1	that it's too weak to basically create enough jobs for young people.
1:19.4	China's unemployment conundrum, business daily from the BBC.
1:38.2	I received my diploma in January. I want to find a job like a big company and I have passed like 20 writing test for the job, but I haven't got any offer for the interview.
1:46.6	This is Alex. She's 24. She's a recent graduate in education and leadership studies,
1:52.7	and she's been to Shanghai University, one of the best in China, after which she went abroad
1:58.0	for a master's degree. It's the kind of top-tier education that used to guarantee people like her entry into the best firms in China.
2:07.1	Not anymore.
2:08.8	So you kept passing the tests, but they kept not giving you the position.
2:14.8	Yeah, because all the candidates have great background. They are like same like me.
2:22.1	As I know, some of the candidates, like they graduate from the UCLA or LSE from UK.
	...

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