BlueSky Thinking Summary

The article gives headline focus to the current rise of China in terms of youth unemployment, which reached 21.3%, the highest on record for June, and its knock-on effect on young workers opting out from traditional career paths through the "lying flat" movement.

Despite the negative headlines, China's economy remains resilient, with 6.3% growth in Q2 2023, according to robust GDP forecasts vis-à-vis Western economies.

It then proceeds to discuss how this huge investment in education contradicts decreasingly small job opportunities.

From the reports, one can note that regulatory actions, shifting economic policy, and a stalled real estate market have curtailed growth;

formerly high-skilled sectors are nominally in a diminutive dilemma.

More importantly, the rapid slowdown of the economy has caught them off guard, hitting the new wave of fresh graduates with a serious problem of job opportunities that challenges long-held beliefs in the stability of high-skilled employment.

Policymakers are thus left with the daunting task of managing such expectation-reality gaps lest potential social unrest ensues.

Back to the reviewer's interest in the changing character of China's labor market, the paper does offer a juicy account of the underpinning complexity facing future challenges.