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 yea

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.

  • AurenkinEnglish
    653·
    3 months ago

    Definitely the worst part of using Lemmy. As someone who lives in Taiwan it’s quite annoying getting gaslit by a bunch of cosplayers in random threads.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      91·
      3 months ago

      Yeah. The good news is they’re harmless because “we’re the bad guys” has the exact opposite of mass appeal. Flat Earthers are more likely to cause real-life political change, haha.

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.orgEnglish
        102·
        3 months ago

        Unfortunately, the tankies are also impeding the change we actually need (e.g. expansion of workers rights). It’s harder to get involved in leftism when such a large part of vocal leftists are tankies.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          41·
          3 months ago

          I’m not really impressed with the other kind of leftist either, TBH. Anarchism is just a vague concept and the movement itself is mostly infighting. All the useful work I see being done is coming from within mainstream activism.