China’s ‘blank paper’ graduates fear years of remote learning and no experience make them unemployable

With no internships and degrees earned mostly online, what are 11.58 million students to do when recruiters say employers will ‘just wait for the next batch of graduates’?

Firms are still recovering from three years of zero-Covid, and many are reluctant to roll the dice on inexperienced applicants in a ‘challenging’ business climate

Reading Time:4 minutes

A jobseeker interacts with a recruiter at a job fair in Beijing on June 9. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:00am, 16 Jun 2023Updated: 9:15am, 16 Jun 2023

After fishing for more than 50 positions across various job portals, Connie Xu finally got a nibble – the chance to interview for an internship with a company in a major Chinese city.

The 22-year-old, who graduated this month with a degree in Chinese language and literature, considered herself a good candidate for the position, with the necessary skill set and classroom experience from projects at university. So, the Guangdong native travelled 90 minutes for the interview, anticipating that this could be her shot at gainful employment.

It did not go as she had hoped.

“They said I’m a greenhorn. In the words of my interviewer, I am a piece of blank paper without any actual work experience,” she recalled.

So, she continues to search. And she is hardly alone in struggling to find a job, especially among her fellow fresh graduates – all 11.58 million of them – entering China’s workforce this year.

The unemployment rate among Chinese aged 16 to 24 continued its rise in May to an all-time high of 20.8 per cent, up from the previous record-breaking 20.4 per cent in April.