On a street lined with restaurants in downtown Beijing, lines of delivery drivers waiting for orders are a common sight during the busy evening rush. In Chinese, food delivery is called "waimai." Looking closely, the drivers wear colorful uniforms: yellow for Meituan, red for JD.com. Wearing the colors of their respective companies, they roam the streets all day long.
"I Graduated from College to Deliver Food"... 1.5 Million Won for 11 Hours a DayAmong the delivery drivers, many looked strikingly young, so I spoke directly with a few of them. The workforce is a mix of full-time and temporary workers, with most working around 11 hours a day.
#Delivery Youth
(Do you start at 8 a.m. and leave at 7:30 p.m.?)
We have set work hours. There are many delivery drivers, but orders are low, so it's not easy. Everything is harder because of the social environment.
The young people interviewed were mostly non-Beijing natives who had come to the capital to earn money after completing equivalent middle school education or graduating from vocational high schools.
#Delivery Youth
(Why did you come to Beijing?)
Because I can earn money here. Beijing is the place where you can make the most money in northern China.
In the early days, riders could earn up to 3 million won per month. Now, intense competition and a decrease in delivery orders due to the economic slump mean that working a full month yields only about 1.5 million won.
#Delivery Youth
I make about 40 deliveries a day.
(How much do you earn per order?)
Around 1,100 to 1,200 won.
Stories of university graduates turning to food delivery after repeatedly knocking on corporate doors to no avail are also frequently shared on social media.
#Delivery Youth"Students Excluded"... The Trap Behind the 15.6% Youth Unemployment Rate
(An older guy from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) said, "Do you know what school I graduated from? I graduated from Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics." Then another guy said, "I went to college too. I graduated last year and started working as a delivery driver this year." What a coincidence, right? Three university graduates (including myself) gathered in one spot.
The street scenes in major Chinese cities serve as a mirror reflecting the harsh reality of youth employment. Recently,
the youth unemployment rate for ages 16 to 24 released by China's National Bureau of Statistics stood at 15.6%.
Looking at this number alone, it is easy to mistakenly think it has dropped compared to when it exceeded 20%. However, there is a major trap behind this figure:
Chinese authorities completely excluded students from the statistics.
When youth unemployment hit a record high of 21.3% in June 2023, China abruptly suspended releasing the figures for more than two months. It then resumed publications after altering the methodology to exclude students. The Chinese government explained that students' primary role is studying, so they cannot be viewed as actual unemployed job seekers. Yet behind the scenes, this move appears aimed at creating an optical illusion by artificially lowering the number, leaving out a vast number of young people in a state of "deferred employment"—those who postpone graduation or enter graduate school because they cannot find jobs. As a result, estimates persist that the actual perceived youth unemployment rate in China is far higher.
"It's Already Rotten, Let It Rot"... 12.7 Million Flood the MarketAmid this situation, a record 12.7 million college graduates entered the labor market this year. After topping 10 million for the first time in 2022, the figure has set a new record every year. Effectively, a population larger than that of the entire city of Seoul floods the job market all at once every year.
The problem is that neither the quality nor the quantity of jobs can absorb this explosive supply.
Consequently, terms like
"tang ping" (lying flat) and "bai lan" (let it rot)
have gained popularity among young Chinese people in recent years. While "tang ping" literally means lying down without making any effort, "bai lan" takes it a step further into an extreme state of apathy or resignation—reasoning that since things are already rotten, they might as well let them rot completely.
An increasing number of young people are giving up entirely, feeling that hard work will not yield good jobs, buying a home is even harder, and upward social mobility is impossible.
#Job-Seeking YouthWhy Jobs Have Disappeared: Regulations, Mismatch, and U.S.-China Tensions
(During my school years) I asked many questions and thought I would be able to get a job once I graduated. I never knew I would end up sending out so many résumés. Nobody wants me.
Several factors explain why China's youth unemployment rate remains high.
First, regulations targeting sectors favored by young people have had a major impact.
Much like young people in South Korea, highly educated Chinese youth aspire to work at big tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent. However, as the Chinese government tightened regulations on these sectors starting in 2020, employment in these industries—which had contributed significantly to youth hiring over the past decade—shrank sharply. Furthermore, regulatory crackdowns on the private tutoring market, aimed at reducing parents' private education burdens, eliminated millions of jobs for educated workers. Speaking with a parent whose child recently took the "Gaokao," China's college entrance examination, private tutoring has not entirely disappeared; people still arrange it through word of mouth. However, because it can no longer be done openly, the overall scale has contracted drastically.
Second is the skill and interest mismatch.
China is an undisputed manufacturing powerhouse with abundant jobs in related fields. Yet 12 million college graduates who worked hard for their degrees do not want to work 3D (dirty, dangerous, and difficult) jobs or on factory assembly lines. Even then, robots are being introduced to manufacturing sites, rapidly replacing simple manual tasks. Compounded by sluggish domestic demand and persistent U.S.-China tensions, companies view the future with uncertainty and take a conservative approach to hiring, preventing the overall job market from expanding.
"Xi Jinping Grows Anxious"... Youth Frustration Threatens System StabilityYouth discontent and the employment crisis represent grave challenges that China cannot afford to ignore. In a speech commemorating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping spent an unusually long time speaking about young people. While founding anniversary speeches typically address national themes such as the party's achievements or national security, President Xi placed strong emphasis on the word "youth."
#Xi Jinping / President of China
Youth are the main force in realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The entire party must value youth, care for youth, and support youth. We must create conditions to help young people grow and cultivate them into talent.
Underlying this is a sense of crisis that the frustration of young people who have lost jobs and given up hope could spill over into social discontent, destabilizing the Communist Party regime. Ultimately, the sight of young delivery drivers driven onto the streets shows that this is not merely an economic issue, but the most urgent national challenge confronting Chinese society today.
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