A March morning, in the north of Beijing, at the Lishuiqiao metro station. There are those who quickly park their bike, go through the gates then jump into a train on line 5 or 13 in order to arrive at work in the city center on time. And there are those who are heading to the job fair organized that morning in the central aisle of a shopping mall.
At 9 a.m., the doors open and the young people discover, stand after stand, the offers presented to them. A Howard Johnson chain hotel is looking for staff for reception, housekeeping and service. A construction company is looking for technical profiles. ” Are you looking for work ? »asks a welcoming lady to young people who hesitate to ask questions.
In a beige overcoat, Liu Yunzhi, 25, holds her brown leather handbag on her shoulder. After taking a stroll through the aisles, she confides: “It’s not easy to find the right job. » There are offers, but the salaries offered do not necessarily correspond to the cost of living in the capital nor to the expectations of those who have studied. She knows something about it. After obtaining her license to work in the management of bilingual nursery schools, she found a job as a librarian in a printing company.
She liked it there. However, in October 2023, every employee was summoned. With the economic situation, the company was not doing very well, we explained to them: they had to resign themselves to a salary cut or resign. For her, this meant going from 5,500 to 4,500 yuan, or from 700 to 580 euros. So, she was told that she was doing poorly. She was pushed to leave without compensation. But by threatening to sue her employer, she still recovered part of it.
Several months of deflation
Young Chinese workers, especially white-collar workers, face a much more difficult job market than in the past. The subject is delicate, because it concerns the future of the new generation. In June 2023, when the unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds reached 21.3% after six months of consecutive increases, the National Bureau of Statistics stopped publishing the data.
Then, in January 2024, a new formula was presented that did not take into account young people still registered as students but looking for work. This, because the figures in fact also counted those who were looking for a small job to finance their studies; not unemployed strictly speaking, justified the director of the office, Kang Yi. The rate thus fell to 14.9% at the turn of the year. Many saw it as a way of suddenly embellishing the statistics.
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