When Zheng Jin was laid off from her job at one of China’s biggest property developers in February, part of her was relieved to get out of an industry in decline. Three months later, and after applying for more than 400 jobs with no luck, she’s panicking.
“I can’t see light at the end of the tunnel,” says the 26-year-old, who’s had about a dozen job interviews without any favorable offers. She’d worked as a market researcher in Nanjing and was let go as part of a 30% reduction in the company’s staff after the government imposed stricter financing rules in the real estate industry, plunging the sector into crisis. “It feels that life has no hope,” she says. “I do not know how much longer I can take it.”
Zheng must now compete with tens of millions of twentysomethings who are struggling to find jobs as the pandemic and government regulatory crackdowns upend their career ambitions. In April, China’s jobless rate among 16- to 24-year-olds, a group that includes new college graduates, climbed to a record 18.2%. That’s three times as high as the national urban unemployment rate in China, and more than the 7.9% for the same cohort in the US.
