Record numbers of Chinese graduates enter worst job market in decades

Graduates, including students who could not attend last year due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, attend a graduation ceremony at Central China Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on June 13, 2021. A cohort of graduates larger than the entire population of Portugal is about to enter one of China’s worst job markets in decades at a time when youth unemployment is already more than three times China’s overall joblessness rate, at a record 18.4%. — Reuters

BEIJING: Jenny Bai was among 10 high-performing computer science students from different Chinese universities selected by a Beijing-based Internet firm for a job upon graduation, following four rounds of arduous interviews.

But last month, the company told the students their contract offers were cancelled due to Covid-19 headwinds and the bad state of the economy in general – obstacles facing a record 10.8 million Chinese university graduates this summer.