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'Rotten-tail kids': China's rising youth unemployment breeds new working class (www.aol.com)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 82 points 2 months ago

Any tankies wanna take a spin on how this is actually a good thing?

[-] ravhall@discuss.online 67 points 2 months ago

Something something Marx, Soviet era reference, reason why USA is bad, Vietnam something, never answering the direct question, personal insult goes here, ending in a leading question. Clown face emoji.

[-] jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 2 months ago

No it's s eben easier: Must be western Propaganda, Source not believable.

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[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Looks like the actual spin was "this is normal and happens everywhere, I see no problem".

[-] occhionaut@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Ah, denial and projection. Classic.

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[-] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 62 points 2 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.org 8 points 2 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.org 8 points 2 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.org 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 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.

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago

Workers rights activists are leftist activists by virtue of advocating for workers rights, IMO.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

It's all just a 5D chess move by Dear Leader Xi. You filthy capitalist pigs won't understand.

[-] Gsus4@mander.xyz 9 points 2 months ago

This they will say it's the US's fault, for corrupting China with capitalism.

[-] barsquid@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

They'll link you to an essay that goes on forever and quotes dozens of philosophers. But it doesn't actually address your question and it is completely divorced from any real-world data.

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[-] xep@fedia.io 26 points 2 months ago

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/rotten-tail-kids-chinas-rising-youth-unemployment-breeds-new-working-class-2024-08-21/

[-] ravhall@discuss.online 22 points 2 months ago

AOL.com

Love it.

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

I was going to say that I’m surprised Aol. news is still a thing.

[-] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

I am in my mid-thirties with a very good MSc and I am working as a labourer, I am not Chinese.

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 16 points 2 months ago

If you're in the US start applying for Civil Service jobs. City, state or federal.

You won't get hired quickly, but when you do get hired you'll have a great union and solid benefits.

[-] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

I'm in the UK, not a bad idea though!

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

I try not to be 'that American' who thinks everything works the same all around the globe.

Good luck

[-] Num10ck@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

hopefully they don't use the historic solution of cannon fodder.

[-] hark@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

That's really rough. Looking for a job while you don't have one is miserable enough, but when the job market is that bad then it's utterly hopeless and filled with despair. The economic outlook in China is looking bad in general and it makes me wonder how much of it will reverberate across the world.

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this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2024

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