HONG KONG — Young people in China facing an increasingly tough labor market are turning to an unlikely place for help in their job searches: Tinder.
Jade Liang, a master’s student in Shanghai, decided to dust off her account on the dating app after applying to more than 400 jobs online without success. She had previously used it in her search for romance, but now finds it useful to connect with fellow professionals for casual coffee chats.
“I simply swiped right on individuals in the industry I aspire to join,” which is tech, said Liang, 26, who told NBC News that she makes her intentions clear once she starts chatting with matches online and that she finds the response is generally welcoming.
Liang is among job seekers in China who are resorting to unconventional methods because of fierce competition and a scarcity of job opportunities. Some jobless adults are even working as “full-time children” for their parents, doing chores and running errands in exchange for financial support.
China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, is struggling with youth unemployment, which hit a record 21.3% last June. After suspending the release of youth unemployment data for several months to revise the method of calculation, Chinese officials said in December that the jobless rate for people ages 16 to 24, excluding students, stood at 14.9%.
That compares with 8% unemployment among Americans ages 15 to 24 in the same month, according to the Federal Reserve.
Though high youth unemployment is not unusual for countries such as China that are also facing other economic challenges, “China’s problems appear to be more serious this time around,” said Su Yue, principal economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit in Shanghai.
“The country’s economic downturn, the impact of the pandemic, and the consolidation of industry all came at the same time, making the impact on the youth population even greater,” she said.
In the face of such…
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