For Anna Li, this year has been the worst she can remember for finding a job in China — harder even than during the pandemic.“I’ve been applying for jobs for half a year. I’m really exhausted but I’ve not received an offer yet,” the 25-year-old graduate in the country’s wealthy eastern Shandong province said, adding that even if she did land a position, salaries for office jobs were often unlivable.
Five years ago, China’s economy was growing fast enough that many graduates were able to snap up good jobs. Now, their prospects are less certain, as the country’s economic recovery is failing to pick up pace six months after authorities began to roll back President Xi Jinping’s tough zero-Covid regime.
Industrial production and profits, property sales and credit growth have all fallen short of analysts’ projections in April and early May, recent data showed, sapping confidence in the growth prospects for the world’s second-largest economy.