Today, China is a country where a high school handyman has a Master’s degree in Physics, a cleaning employee has training in Environmental Planning, a driver studied Philosophy and a doctoral candidate from the prestigious Tsinghua University ends up applying to work as a police officer. .
These are real cases in a Chinese economy that is experiencing difficulties — and it is not difficult to find more like them, says .
“My dream job was to work in investment banking,” he says Sun Zhanas you prepare to start your shift as waiter at a hot food restaurant in the city of Nanjing, in the south of the country.
The 25-year-old recently graduated with a Master in Finance. He expected to “make a lot of money” in a well-paid role, and he looked for that job. “But I couldn’t“.
China is producing million graduates every year but in some areas, there are not enough jobs for them. The economy has been struggling and stagnant in important sectorsincluding real estate and the manufacturing industry.
Youth unemployment was around 20% before the way the numbers were measured was changed to improve the situation. In August 2024, it was still 18.8%. The last value for November fell to 16.1%.
Family pressure
Many graduates who had difficulty getting work in their field of study are now performing duties far below their qualificationsending up being the target of criticism from family and friends.
When Sun Zhan became a waiter, his parents didn’t like it. “THE My family’s opinion is a big concern for me. After all, I studied for many years and attended a very good school”, he says.
Zhan says the family feels ashamed with his career choice and I would have preferred that he had tried to become a civil servant. But, adds the young graduate, “the choice is mine“.
However, has a secret plan. Will he use the time he spent working as a waiter to learn the restaurant businessor, so as to be able to open your own restaurant.
Zhan acha that, if you end up running a successful businessyour family’s critics will have to change their minds.
“A employment situation is very, very difficult in China, so I think that many young people have to readjust their expectations”, says the teacher Zhang JunCity University of Hong Kong.
According to Jun, many students seek to obtain higher degrees to have better prospects, but then the reality of the work environment hits them.
A warning sign
“The job market has been very difficult,” he says Wu Dan29 years old, who is currently Intern at a massage clinic for sports injuries in Shanghai. “For many of my master’s colleagues, it is the first time they are looking for a job and very few managed to find one“.
With a finance degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Dan also I didn’t imagine I would end up in this situation. Before that, the young woman worked at a futures trading company in Shanghai, where she specialized in agricultural products.
Upon returning to the mainland after finishing his studies in Hong Kong, Dan wanted to work at a private equity firm and received a few offers, but was not satisfied with the conditions. The fact that I didn’t accept any of them and started training in sports medicine was not well received by the family.
“They thought I had such a good job and that my educational background was quite competitive. They didn’t understand why I chose a job with few barriers, which forces me to do physical work for little money“, it says.
Dan admits that I wouldn’t be able to survive in Shanghai with your current salary if it weren’t for the fact that your partner owns the house.
At first, he didn’t know anyone who supported his current professional path, but your mother has been changing her mindafter having treated her spine, significantly reducing the pain she felt.
Now, the former finance student says she feels that a life working in world of investments does not suit you; is more interested in sports injuries, enjoys work and, One day, you want to open your own clinic.
Chinese graduates are being forced to change their perceptions regarding what can be considered “a good position”, says Zhang Jun.
In what can be seen as “a warning sign” for young people, “many companies in China, including many technology companies, fired many employees“, adds the teacher.
Significant areas of the economy, which were once major employers of graduates, are offering substandard conditionsand the decent opportunities in these areas are disappearing completely.
Hollywood is not a dream
While thinking about what to do in the future, many unemployed graduates are also turn to the film and television industry.
Os big budget films they need a lot of extras to fill the scenes and, in “Hollywood da China“, the famous film production city of Hengdiansouthwest of Shanghai, there are many young people looking for work as actors.
Wu Xinghaiwho studied Electronic Information Engineering, is in one of these productions, where he plays a bodyguard. “I am essentially on the side of the protagonist. I’m seen alongside the main actors, but I don’t have any lines,” he says.
The 26-year-old laughs when he admits that his good looks helped him working as an extra. He says people often come to Hengdian and only work for a few months at a time.
Being an extra It’s a temporary solution to Xinghai, until he finds something permanent. “I don’t make a lot of money, but I’m relaxed and I feel free.”
“This is the situation in China, isn’t it?? The moment we graduated, we were unemployed,” he says. Lia young man who did not want to give his first name. He graduated in film directing and writing and also signed up to work as an extra for a few months.
“I came here to look for work while I’m still young. When I’m older, I’ll find a stable job.”
But many fear they will never get a decent job and may have to settle for a different role than they had imagined.
The lack of confidence in the trajectory of the Chinese economy means that young people often do not know what the future holds for them. Wu Dan says that even his friends who are employed can feel quite lost.
“They are quite confused and feel that the future is not clear. Those who have jobs are not satisfied with them. They don’t know how long they can stay in these positions. And if they lose their current job, what else can they do?”
The young woman says she will just “follow the current and gradually explore what I really want to do.”
