12 Million Young Graduates Flood Job Market, Only to Face Despair

[Anchor]

The rise of AI is also threatening the future of young people. In China, a record-breaking 12 million university graduates have entered the job market this year. With the adoption of AI and a slowdown in economic growth, these young people are being pushed into low-quality jobs.

Reporter Choi Go-un has the story.

[Reporter]

As evening approaches, delivery workers begin to gather one by one.

Those in yellow represent Meituan, while those in orange are from JD.com.

Though they work for different companies, most of them are young Chinese people with youthful faces.

Delivery workers from each company wait in front of areas densely packed with restaurants, picking up and delivering orders as they come in.

They work approximately 11 hours a day.

[Delivery Worker: (Do you start at 8 a.m. and finish at 7:30 p.m.?) There are set working hours. There are many delivery drivers, but there are few orders, so it is not easy. Everything is more difficult because of the social environment.]

If they work without any days off, they earn about 1.5 million won per month.

[Delivery Worker: I deliver about 40 orders a day. (How much do you earn per delivery?) It is about 1,100 to 1,200 won.]

China's economic growth rate for the second quarter was 4.3%, the lowest since the pandemic.

As high-quality jobs disappear due to sluggish domestic demand, young people are flocking to short-term, gig-style jobs.

[Delivery Worker: (Why did you come to Beijing?) Because I can earn money. Beijing is the place where you can earn the most money in the north.]

The unemployment rate for young people aged 16 to 24 in urban areas of China is 15.6%.

This figure excludes students, and many analysts believe the perceived unemployment rate is much higher when considering the so-called "tang ping" (lying flat) generation who stay at home, or those who have given up on finding work, known as "bai lan" (letting it rot).

[Job Seeker: (During my school days) I asked many questions and thought I would be able to find a job after graduation. I never imagined I would have to send out so many resumes. No one wants me.]

China has announced plans to create more than 12 million new urban jobs this year and has launched campaigns to expand hiring, including increasing vocational training in the AI sector.

However, there is a gap between the skills of university graduates and what companies require, and with the introduction of AI automating some tasks, resolving the employment bottleneck remains a difficult challenge.

(Video reporting: Choi Deok-hyun, Video editing: Kim Ho-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.