After months of fruitless job hunts, Li Yuliang, one of millions of China’s fresh graduates, has thrown in the towel. Desperate for a job, any job, he has signed on for the ultimate sweatshop scenario: work without pay.
“I know it doesn’t make sense,” he says, “but with the economy grinding down, it’s virtually impossible for fresh graduates to get a job. But if I can ride out this downturn, I’ll have something to show on my resume — and perhaps land a job that actually pays!”
Urban unemployment is soaring in China as the once-mighty dragon economy collapses with the recession in its principal export markets, the US and Europe. “Work is proving hard to find,” says Yao Xianguo of the College of Public Administration at Zhejiang University. “Many graduates are willing to work for no salary, just for the chance to be employed.”
Nearly four million more students will graduate from Chinese universities next year, but their job prospects are looking bleak. Royal Bank of Scotland economist Ben Simpfendorfer projects the economy to grow at 5% in 2009, the slowest since the 1990s. “It’s not a recession, but it will feel like one,” he says.
World Bank China director David Dollar says, “Many will probably be happy to get entry-level jobs far below their skill levels. Others will remain unemployed.” Last week, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said urban unemployment, excluding migrant workers, had shot up to 9.4%, against the official 4% at the end of September.
Disaffection over the collapsing economy is spreading. Even normally docile white-collar workers are voicing their frustration. Last month, a group from Shanghai started a website called ‘Bujingqi’ (‘Collapsing Economy’), intended for jobless white-collar workers to hyperventilate about the economy. The site has over 5,000 registered users.
Given that 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, when restive students clamoured for political reforms in the backdrop of a failing economy, the government is understandably concerned by the latest urban unemployment figures.
