Hi all, this is Wei, the director of the documentary. Thank you all for taking the time to watch the program. We spent 2 months tracking the job hunts of the young people you saw. I’m grateful for their participation, and moved by how they all had smiles on their faces and light in their eyes despite the curveball life has thrown at them. Our first profile Xiami now has his own channel, in which he talks with Chinese youths from all walks of life. If you speak Chinese, you can find him as 严肃的虾米.

I love how he said that they're not releasing youth unemployment stats because the country is developing rapidly and the stats will get better. It's like me opting out of my performance review at work because I am, in my own assessment, getting more productive by the day, so I'll take the review next year.

I think the lack of opportunities is tied to how corporations are simultaneously abusing their current employees, overworking them, and then being unwilling to invest in the next generation of their work force.

When I graduation from college, I couldn't find a job for 2 years. I know how frustrating and depressing the journey can be. That was 30+ years ago. I am doing great now. Hang in there, never give up.

Thank you to those brave students who agreed to be interviewed and shine a light on the harrowing experience of many in my generation. To those who are older, more experienced and have made it in life. It means the world to us you understand our struggles and challenges, even if you're not in the position to help us.

It is sad what is happening to these bright, young, industrious people. They seem malleable and resilient. I have empathy for them. I’m retired and disabled; I’ve found that few people want to hire 70 year old men that can’t walk much. I will pray that these young wonders find a way to fly in their lives!

A good education is the dream of the parents. Its the economy that slaps the kids with the hand of reality.

Youth unemployment is horrible. If the starting message to your work life is "nobody wants you at the peak of your employability", then imagine how these youths must feel with most of their life yet to come.

Another reason is that Labor-intensive industry in China is quite exploitative, majority of youngers are not willing to seek a job in factory or catering industry. Meanwhile, the employers who offer low-skilled jobs are not willing to hire a worker with beholder's degree. Because they worry that these highly educated employees will leave since they are less likely to endure the high pressure.

There is a growing problem around the world in regard to the younger generation. They were told that getting a degree would enhance the future prospects, and that was true for the Boomer, Gen X and to some level Millennial generations. We as kept telling them the best way to improve their future was through a degree, so what happened and is still happening is that more and more youngsters are attending Universities, so now it's no longer an elite qualification. What's happened is that because so many people now have degrees they've effectively become worthless, they've become undervalued. So the next step was to get a Master's Degree, which has meant more and more are getting a Post Graduate qualification, and so lessening the value of a Master Degree. There are just too many youngsters out there looking for graduate level first jobs, and not enough jobs to go around. So you find individuals working in job roles that don't require a degree level qualification. So what we have in China and many other countries are an abundance of the younger generation who are over qualified with degrees that effectively worthless.

I am Masters student at one of the top Canadian university, working in a warehouse as a part time for 30 hours per week under 0 degree Celsius temperature, travelling in a public transport for 2 hours daily, working on 3 academic project every 4 months and applying to more than 200 internship position in a month. All in all you have to struggle to survive no matter where you are.

If employers are hiring students with masters for office work, how can lower education students get any jobs. This is crazy, so sorry for the rest of graduated youths.

Numbers of graduates are growing. But the job market is actually shrinking. And another situation in China is that you might be facing layoff once you over 35. Not to mention people need to work so hard to get a job with the toxic work environment like intense workload and overtime. ( if you don't take this job, someone else will. Thats how toxic it is) I hope China can turn things around becuase there are many students like me are facing this challenge.

It's a much more serious problem than the video implies. Unemployed people won't go out to build families - which means another generation of low birth rates, and a continued downwards spiral etc, etc. China's failure to take care of this explosive unemployment problem will mean a continuing drop of population that the CCP will not be able to control.

I graduated in the US in 2009, the year after the Financial crash. My entire graduating class that year had an unemployment rate of ~30%, and that's for people with a full Bachelor's degree or higher (even worse for those without). Nevertheless all of my friends who struggled then now have productive careers. So don't give up, keep looking, and get career experience wherever you can. Even part-time job and contracting work is better than nothing to put on your resume.

A very well put together, balanced documentary. Enjoyed it a lot thanks

The problem it seems is China has pushed its youth into tertiary education to suit a service based economy, despite the fact that China's main strength is manufacturing. Thr graph that shows China chasing down Germany's education rate doesn't mention one thing about Germany. The system there is much better structured for graduates, particularly from technical universities, to be placed in employment.

The drive of the young man towards the end will be going far in life. People with his mindset always find a way. Best of luck to the entire 🌎

The last sentence of this young woman is incredible sad. Hope she finds a job soon

I'm a Taiwanese Australian. I feel sad watching this. It's not like these young people are not trying. I can say that they are a very resilient bunch - having to cope through COVID-19, navigate through an economic downturn, rising living cost, high competition in the job market, rising house price which is pretty much unreachable already for many working professionals. I hope they don't give up and keep trying. Hopefully things work out for them and it will get better!

Currently the "depreciation of degrees" is really getting crazy....I graduate in 2010 and I could easily find a job and the companies are willing to spend time & money to train employees. But nowadays, a lot of companies just simply skipped those candidates with undergraduate degree. For those people with lower degrees, they can only find the job as physical worker.

This is what the college grads in 2008 of the US went through. There's no easy solution. It will take years for the recovery and doom that generation.

Found it very different in Canada. A Master’s degree may be a must for any entry level job in nowadays China, while in Canada it will reject you from any low wage job for being overqualified. Extremely harsh for new graduates without direct experience but useless degrees from top universities.

I can always look to CNA for thoughtful and objective documentaries on China's economy. What a breath of fresh air!

I hope these young people will find a way out.

In Singapore, early entrants seems well received typically baring in mind biz environment. One area of concerns for jobs may be for mid-careerist and thereafter groups of new young seniors

This is same in India. Post doctorate degree holder applies for government group c and d jobs where minimum eligibility criteria is class 12 or diploma holders

This isn't just an issue in China. There have been an overvaluation/marketing of college education in many countries, including the US. This is because it used to be great. Once about a time, only the best and brightest(and some rich/powerful) get to go to college. So naturally, their out come are great, not just because they are college educated, but also because they are the best and brightest(or rich and powerful). In some ways, college is but a certificate for talent. But as college becoming increasingly common, that's no longer true. In many places, college educated have became the norm, so it is no longer a hallmark itself. Instead, competition is back to primarily merit, which the college education is no longer a proof of. Fundamentally, this is a societal problem at large on the perspective of colleges. While "everyone is created equal" sounds nice, it is just factually not true in regards to aptitude. People have different talents at different things. Many people just aren't book smart. Some are, for example, great with their hands and would have made a great tradesman that could earn more over mediocre grades at mediocre college but are pushed toward college nevertheless. As for the actual talentless, to be blunt, it is better to subsidize their life for... life, than having them waste educational resources and then have to be subsidized for life anyway. Barrier to entry for education/training based on meritocracy is not a bad thing inherently. The problem, naturally, is that this might be bad for the economically/socially disadvantaged, as almost all test of meritocracy is affected by prior education/training. But the solution to that should not be blind admission via lowering of the barrier, but rather attempt to provide better early stage education/training to them. This, btw, is also the reason why I dislike the concept of AA and any other such programs. While it might be the simplest solution and, if all else fails, a better-than-nothing compromise, the reality of the result tend to be grim. Given the high rate of, let's be honest, economical failures of college graduates, those who are barely able to get in through any preferential program are even less likely to be successful. So the end result tend to be an increase of student debt laden individuals among already disadvantaged population. it would be far better, IMO, to find ways to shore up primary and secondary education for the disadvantaged. This might take longer to see any results, but would actually help those who are talented but merely lack opportunity. As for those who, in the end, not suited for a paper education, they would know so sooner and look for alternatives. As alluded earlier, trades can be quite lucrative and we need more people in them.

Very nice documentary guys🎉🎉

Youth unemployment rate in China has something to do with overemphasis on higher education, at the expense of trade and vocational education, that not having a university diploma may affect future prospects of getting married.

Please consider to dub the chinese parts of this documentary. This is really helpful for those of us who are blind or simply doing some kind of work while we listen and can't read the subtitles. Thanks🙂

Ironically, as someone with a PhD. Being a carpenter, master welder, and plumber. Has allowed me to buy a home of my own, at 34. Along with affording me the luxury of traveling twice overseas, to Europe for vacation, all the way from Western Asia. P.S. I’m a millennial, who just turned 35, a mere four days ago, btw. 😅

I wouldn't be super happy on my graduation day if I knew I'd have such a difficult time finding a job afterwards. I can see why people would want to go graduate school, so they can prolong the job search.

That's why many people got their small family business so their children can run the business while looking for their favourite jobs. We Malaysians did that. Even we got into niche market - plants nursery, coffee shop, small bakery etc... Try to learn some niche skills - animal grooming, pets care, ...

I think there was an interesting subtext running under this set of stories which is that it’s not clear what the government or anyone else can do about this. Almost all the people featured pursued degrees in what were recently major growth sectors of the economy or for socially desirable roles. The skills mismatch is made more acute without a clear signal of where new growth will be. There’s some public messaging around manufacturing but it’s not clear how much that sector can grow in terms of employment. The entrepreneurs trying to move up the value chain in agriculture is a reasonable bet, but it’s not clear what type of support people are getting in trying out such options.

Great documentary ❤

64% enrolled in tertiary studies means a substantial number of them, perhaps half, will be disappointed upon graduation. What is the jobs distribution by education levels in a society?

Get the degree requirements in a job description out. Nobody needs a degree to work in companies that requires no problem solving skills

College/Graduate degree is only meaningful if it's able to truly separate those with degree and those without degree with secure, well paying jobs. When you over expand colleges and universities without producing enough job opportunities, only the colleges are making money. Also, there are simply not enough high paying jobs for 11 million graduates, some are going to have to go into trade jobs or hourly service/hospitality jobs. The mismatch of job prospect expectation with college/graduate degree versus job market reality is a problem for all countries right now.

1.overall economic de-acceleration after covid 2.reducing of small and private enterprises due to increasing of labor costs 3. House markets which account for huge labor force declined 4.more vocational training schools required than universities

Noticed this happening in Europe 30 years ago. Was wondering what all the young people were doing on the office floor with a BA/MA degree, and staying. Is called degree inflation. Luckily we were a society already transformed to a service industry and could afford these changes.

Documentaries by cna is really nice and balanced.

Great great reportage 👍👍

Many of you students need to know is this is common. It took me two years to find a job I really wanted. Hang in there

SAME PROBLEM IN INDIA EVEN WE ARE GROWING FAST BUT UNEMPLOYMENT IS ON HIGH HERE TOO

I bet that youth unemployment rate is much higher than 21%.

Good video 👍🇬🇧

Thank you for speaking for us. It’s fair and objective.

You can only have so many degree-holders in any given country. Any extras will have problems finding jobs commensurate to their equalification.

Mostly the policies of government lead to this high unemployment among youth.. The property market crash due to Evergrande, the crackdows on tech sector and after school tuition sector lead to demand and supply mismatches across country...

I graduated in 2022 in one of chinese university, and now become a software engineer. In fact,the unemployed rate of people who over 35 years old maybe much higher than younger. But there’s no actual unemployed toll or rate about this. I hope Wei, the author, can do a survey about this , thx.

empathy for the students. but don't give up. keep your head high and be positive. i remember when i graduated a long time ago, the job market was so poor that we had ph.d. people working in very minimal jobs. when the oil price crashed a few years ago, we had oil companies vp working in gas station. so keep a positive attitude, the sun will always rise the next morning. love from canada.

21.3%??? I believe that the actual rate should be around 40%.

There was a guy who made a song about this in china, it's called 阳光开朗孔乙己, funny and brilliant song, really explains the jobless graduate situation in China! Btw, the song is on youtube!

I'm surprised by, as of late, every time I listen to news about some other country, how much similar everyone's situation is to our own here in Italy.

I Feel bad for these Chinese youth having lived this myself after graduating spring of 2007. I’ve never had a job that required my business degree only low wage jobs and made more in the 90s as a kid working summer jobs than after graduating.

I had the same experience 8 or 9 years ago in Canada. Not a single reply after 300++ application within 6 months. So I personally don't think this is a new phenomenon.

The problem is so many young people just overqualified. Their parents send their kids to study and get high degree but a sector that absorb those people just small. Low basic blue collar job such waitress, factor workers are always available. But OFC those people don't want work as blue collar worker if they have a prestigious degree. It is dilemma.

I am 30 years of age living in taiwan and still jobless😢

Nice documentary! Btw, how's the young people/immigrants in Singapore?

Without good jobs, the system makes a mockery of their college degrees. 😂

The problem is education level has been climbing up too rapidly and chinese graduates are mostly focused on academic educations, not much blue collar educations. There is a vast vacant of needs in many areas, but only less educated people are willing to do those skilled labours, people just wanna sit in the office and that is considered decent.

The problem is that during China's lockdown, many companies were unable to continue operating and closed down. There were more and more graduates but fewer and fewer job opportunities. But more importantly, imagine if you graduated from college, you wouldn't expect to work as a factory worker or delivering for Uber, you'd look for some high-paying job. And many college students are unwilling to return to their hometowns to work because they think big cities are more prosperous. This has led to more and more college students graduating and staying in big cities, preferring to wait without any income until they find a 'decent' job. For example, if you are from India or Bangladesh and you want to stay and work in New York, the Americans will not give you a work visa or green card. At this time, many people would rather stay in the United States without income or work in restaurants rather than return to their hometowns.

so . . . at some points, my nephew come to me and asked about his job searching. so when i asked why he choose his specific degree in college, he said that according to statistic, his degree has a large number of demand from job market. i had to explain to him that, such demand would have to be compared to the amount of applicant and graduates. And also most of job would require certain amount of experience, not only a degree. So in the end he would have to search for some small project to fill in his CV and hoping for more things.

I graduate in 1997 during Tom Yum Kung crisis. Most of my Thai friend opt for higher education sponsor by their parents. It's took some time for job markets to recover.

The young generation has a though time. I can see it everywhere. Usa, Europe, Asia. Good luck everyone 👍 keep strong

Heart breaking😢 to watch highlights of these young folks job hunting... wishing🙏🍀🙏 them all improving job/life opportunities in 2024.

Must be said it is a complex issue to discuss in many aspects 😮‍💨 I also see training cost has shifted to the workers which we had to spend a lot and carry loans just to further educate ourselves for the job market 🙁 If after investing many thousands to graduate and cannot find a related job, it makes sense to feel the degree (investment) is wasted, thus explaining why would prefer and risk to keep looking for related jobs to use their qualifications and not take low-paying jobs 🤕 (But don't get me wrong, low-pay jobs is another issue that has to be addressed too because they are often underrated and should be fairly granted for their hard pay work

Yep, lots of Chinese think that 10-20k a month rmb is normal standard salary lol. But the truth is their salary is still stuck at around 5k rmb a month. Those that earn equivalent of western salary/wage is actually very very fortunate and few in china and their education level is advance compare to those that get paid the same in the west , west earning the same amount are prob just supermarket workers. White collars in the west would earn 5-10x that

Based on the video, it seems to me that the problem lays more on the mismatch between what the pampered generation wants and what kind of job available on the market.... The market would fix itself the longer this thing drags on.....

I was like these kids once. When I graduated, I couldn't find a full time job for 2 years. Sure some of it is because of their high expectations. I had those aspirations too when I graduated. But at some point, you just have to find any job you can, deal with the hardship, and grind your way until you can find a better opportunity, even if that takes years. The worst thing you can do is do nothing and hoping the problems away. Hang in there and try your hardest. If you can't honestly answer the question "Did you really try your best?", with a "yes", then keep going, you still have hope.

0:30 Is that two ships pushing a cargo ship toward the harbor? LOL

Master degree is just like a High school diploma in China. Even my dogs have MBAs. They are looking for new grads with double PhDs.

Great Documentary about China.

Looking at the graduation footages played several times in the video just feels brutal at these point

I can understand the frustration. Most of these students are probably the first of their family getting a high education and they grew up hearing that a diploma will garantie them a stable financial futur. Actually, it helps a lot. But think this is a tool and not a fast track to success. So this is rhe first milestone for your search of success. As there are so much applicants, you need to think out of the boxe and honestly even if you finally get a corporate position, the conditions are not the best. I will open my own business or be consulting.

Covid had been tough on every country. All the Asian country have high youth unemployment. A lot of young graduates will have to take any jobs offered rather than the discipline they studied. In Kuala Lumpur,the rental for condos are BELOW pre Covid. Business is bad and everyone have to lower their expectations.

What unemployed graduates? Ccp just stopped reporting the figures so there's no disaster looming😊

Knowledge can rewrite your destiny, wow I love that. So true.

Bro back ground music and filter so gooood😂

大丈夫能屈能伸，高等教育輔助知識，但不增長隨機應變，處世之道的常識。I am a Thai, 77 years old, so I can’t speak for other countries. In Thailand, the top entrepreneurs mostly do not have university or even high school education. But so many Ph.D. working for them. Most of them started from bottom up, as street vendors, salesmen ………… in my own generation and social circle, in average, my high school (some even didn’t finish) classmates do better than friends going to universities. Please do not get the wrong message that I discourage university education. What we all need is the fighting spirit and wisdom of survival.

when you leave the university, you enter into the real world. Life after can be very challenging and hard

I’m Indonesian studying in California and I have a Chinese roommate. She’s pursuing her PhD here fully funded by scholarship. Once I asked her why does she want to get PhD and she answered “to help me get a job, my master isn’t enough to get decent salary job in China”

One of the best documentries i have ever scene

Most unofficial youth unemployment statistics say its the other way round 25% employed and 75% unemployed in a skilled profession they went to university for and most seem to consider this as roughly correct, Also the well known practice of university's and college's withholding their diploma if they don't have a job that can bump the numbers as there is obviously a fear by these institutions that they will suffer financial problems if 70% to 80% of students can't get a job except a delivery driver,

Saw very credible statistics that have youth unemployment in the suburbs of Beijing and Shanghai at over 40%

Life is not a strawberry cake,.unfortunately, most of us have to go through this. Just don't give up!

I’m growing **Old** and therefore cannot Perform many Manual Labor jobs; however, I’m still fully capable of doing most any Desk or Administrative task with great enthusiasm 😊

A degree alone isn’t enough. You have to have certificates, technical skills, internships, etc

Is banding together to form a co-op startup an option? If these graduates have the skills, why not form their own company as co-partners? They'd have to keep a low-overhead and acquire clients (hopefully giving them repeat business), but it could work if everyone is driven and if they have the resources to pull it off.

this is a global phenomenon i graduated from architecture in australia around 2011. it took me like 10mths to find my first job in architecture in australia. I had work experience of a year beforehand too. but i didnt give up any, was doing whatever i could to stay relevant to my field. now i work in construction and earn a pretty decent living. This is the process.

My heart 😢❤

When I graduated from university, my cohort and I also faced a tough time with employment due to the usual economic cycles and lack of work experience. It certainly doesn’t help now since so many kids are going into university instead of suitable vocational training. Given that the current global economy is undergoing a major slow down, unprecedented credit pressures, and major geopolitical shifts, are we over hyping this as a unique China problem? Seems like my kids and their peers are in a similar situation here in Canada. Perhaps we can work through this down cycle as a global community as we have done in the past if we stop spending so much time, energy, and resources on global conflicts.

感谢评论区很多人说的鼓励的话， 确实有安慰到我。

I graduated in the nineties here in South Africa and jobs were everywhere even for unskilled people. Like China, jobs are becoming scarce lately. We also have skilled and unskilled migrants competing vigorous for the openings in the market. South Africa has closer to 40% unemployed then we have people from the rest of the continent and Asia including Chinese themselves are here looking for the few jobs available. I was under employed for three years and became unemployed for another 4yrs. Being unemployed is devastating to one's life and I'm praying for these Chinese children to get a headstart in life

Wow, tremendous work! Well done and thanks for the documentary.

I am from India, the same case is here too.

The CCP always has a way of putting a positive spin on any bad situation, even when it comes to not releasing the unemployment figures.

拍得不错 再接再厉

Xiami is a charismatic, philosophocal and kind person. I hope he is able to get a reliable job and spark some change