According to a recent estimate, nearly 20 million Chinese youth have been dismissed off their jobs amid the covid upsurge.
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Pointing up to the 20 million estimate
Although there has been a downward trend in the employment rate in China since the first quarter of this year yet the recent estimate of 20 million is alarming as it only includes youth from the urban sector population of 107 million. Explicitly, the figure includes Chinese youth falling between the age group of 16-24.
It has also been seen that the employees being laid off are from larger Chinese companies which reflects the deteriorating condition of China’s economy with the covid crisis.
Instance
The alarming estimate is followed after one of the largest Chinese corporation, Xiaomi fired a significant number of its employees as a measure of reducing its workforce in order to cope up with its dwindling revenue due to the epidemic. According to CNN estimate, 60% of the tech giant’s revenue depended on the sale of smartphones which dropped to 11% this year.
The announcement by Xiaomi came while the nation was already facing a huge unemployment crisis.
This year, the escalating rate of unemployment from the first quarter to the third quarter with an inconsiderable slight decrease in the month of August coincided with Xiaomi decreasing its employment capacity by around 1,900 people.
Negative potential
A much larger rate of unemployment is being apprehended as about 11.6 percent graduates in China would seek for a place in the working sector which already has limited employment capacity. So the potential working population would further add to the rise in unemployment rate.
Last month Beijing’s Tsinghua University also witnessed an uproar by its young students over the zero-covid policy.
A senior member of a Washington D.C based think tank said in a statement said that the ongoing job scarcity in China was one of the biggest challenges for the Communist Party.
What does the UN Envisage?
According to UN the working population of China would fall down within a decade and by the end of the century it would further go down to around 60 per cent.
