“Graduation equals unemployment” has long been a common saying in China
unemployment” has long been a common saying in China . It is often used in jest by university students as final exams loom. But for the 9m or so due to graduate in June—a record high—the words convey a dark reality. As China limps back to work after covid-19, their job prospects are truly bleak. They will enter the workforce as prospective employers mull lay-offs or hiring freezes. For a middle class used to relentlessly strong economic growth, the shock will be great.
Last year just over half of entrants to China’s urban workforce were university graduates. Usually about 60% of them would be hired by small- and medium-sized enterprises. But such firms have been among those hardest-hit by the coronavirus. On April 14th Li Keqiang, the prime minister, told his cabinet that the situation for this year’s graduates was “grim”.
Competition for graduate jobs had already grown fierce in recent years, particularly for the most prestigious positions. Now it is cut-throat. Miriam Zhang, a graduate from Weifang, a city in the northern province of Shandong, has sent out 100 applications in the past two months and got responses only to six. One job, she heard, had attracted 3,000 hopefuls.
Until recently, job-hunting involving intercity travel was hampered by quarantine-related restrictions. Even though such measures have been eased in most places, hassles remain . Wang Zheqi, who is meant to graduate this year in Shanghai, had hoped to use her dorm room as a base for job-hunting. Instead she is stuck in her hometown because her university is still closed and she cannot afford off-campus accommodation in Shanghai.
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