CHINA'S NEW GRADUATES FACING A DIRE JOB MARKET

A record 12.7 million young people are looking for jobs as the country embraces artificial intelligence — and as the technology begins to upend the work force.

A few months out from graduating with a master’s degree in urban planning, Jin Shangyu is watching artificial intelligence upend the industry she is trying to enter.

Job boards are filled with roles that require A.I. expertise, while listings for traditional roles seem to be dwindling. Much of the work involved in the early stage of a design project, which used to involve several people, can now be executed with a few clicks of a mouse.

Since getting her degree from the University of Hong Kong, Ms. Jin, 26, who is from northern China, has applied for about 150 internships and entry-level jobs in Hong Kong and mainland China, but has been met with silence. She took a $400 professional A.I. course in hopes of standing out in the marketplace. It does not seem to have helped. No wonder, she thought: If even seasoned workers are being undercut by A.I., what chance was there for those seeking to enter the work force?

“My feeling is that we, new graduates, are exactly the kind of people that A.I. will replace,” she said. When she thinks about planning for her future, she said, “I really don’t know how to even begin because I don’t see hope.”

An estimated 12.7 million new graduates are joining China’s work force this year, the largest yet of a cohort that has been steadily growing over the years. They are facing two intractable and connected challenges. Like previous classes, they are entering an oversaturated job market and competing for a shrinking pool of entry-level positions in a sluggish economy. But they also face a new obstacle in the added uncertainty of A.I., which is beginning to restructure industries and change recruiters’ priorities.

It is a global problem. College graduates around the world are grappling with the prospect that entry-level jobs could simply disappear. But in China, the concern is acute. The country has adopted A.I. at an almost unmatched pace, spurred by government support and broad public enthusiasm, while youth unemployment remains stubbornly high.

This July, the rate for urban residents aged 16 to 24 was 17.9 percent. The supply of desirable, well-paying graduate jobs has not kept pace with the ballooning number of young people who entered college.

“A.I. has arrived at a particularly difficult moment, though it did not create the underlying problem,” said Christian Yao, a senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand who has studied how young Chinese people are navigating the job market.

- Author: Yan Zhuang, The New York Times

Read more...