BEIJING (Reuters) - Rising unemployment in China is pushing millions of college graduates into a tough bargain, with some forced to accept low-paying work or even subsist on their parents’ pensions, a plight that has created a new working class of “rotten-tail kids”.

The phrase has become a social media buzzword this year, drawing parallels to the catchword “rotten-tail buildings” for the tens of millions of unfinished homes that have plagued China’s economy since 2021.

A record number of college graduates this year are hunting for jobs in a labour market depressed by COVID-19-induced disruptions as well as regulatory crack-downs on the country’s finance, tech and education sectors.

The jobless rate for the roughly 100 million Chinese youth aged 16-24 crept above 20% for the first time in April last year. When it hit an all-time high of 21.3% in June 2023, officials abruptly suspended the data series to reassess how numbers were compiled.

  • cecinestpasunbot
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    22 days ago

    I’ll only jumps through hoops for you CanadaPlus 😉

    in my experience you folks don’t tend to shy away when flamed.

    Well I think like most people online MLs aren’t above posting snarky replies or acting dismissive especially when confronted by the same attitudes. Most know that countering disinformation or trying to organize for their political aims online is generally a waste of time.