Why do China and US have College grads that cant find decent paying jobs?

Why do the 2 largest economies in the world have this problem?

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Gen Z men with college degrees now have the same unemployment rate as non-grads—a sign that the higher education payoff is dead

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Last month the Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei made an alarming prediction: Artificial intelligence could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years. A look at the current job market for recent college graduates isn’t exactly reassuring.

Unemployment for degree-holders age 22 to 27 is almost 6%, the highest it’s been since the pandemic. And crucially, it’s significantly worse than the unemployment rate for all workers, which hovers around 4%. That kind of inversion has very rarely been seen over the last three decades the Federal Reserve has been tracking. But it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re at the beginning of a white-collar apocalypse.

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Gen Z’s suspicion that the job hunt is harder than ever may be true—about 58% of recent graduates are still looking for full-time work, compared to 25% of earlier graduates, like millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers before them. Young job-hunters are also three times less likely to have a job lined up out of school, as AI agents take over and entry-level roles are shrinking for Gen Z workers.

Gen Z is slammed for complaining about how tough it is to work five days in-office, or even get a job in the first place—but their suspicions may be true. Research has confirmed, their older millennial critics had a far easier time locking down a gig to begin with.

About 58% of students who graduated within the last year are still looking for their first job, according to a recent report from Kickresume.

Meanwhile, just 25% of graduates in previous years—such as their millennial and Gen X predecessors—struggled to land work after college.

China

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China's overqualified youth taking jobs as drivers, labourers and film extras

Youth unemployment had been nudging 20% before the way of measuring the figures was altered to make the situation look better. In August 2024, it was still 18.8%. The latest figure for November has come down to 16.1%.

Many university graduates who've found it hard to get work in their area of selected study are now doing jobs well below what they're qualified for, leading to criticism from family and friends.

inland China, so I think a lot of young people have to really readjust their expectations," says Professor Zhang Jun from the City University of Hong Kong.

She says many students are seeking higher degrees in order to have better prospects, but then the reality of the employment environment hits them.

"The job market has been really tough," says 29-year-old Wu Dan, who is currently a trainee in a sports injury massage clinic in Shanghai.

"For many of my master's degree classmates, it's their first time hunting for a job and very few of them have ended up landing one."

She also didn't think this was where she would end up with a finance degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

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Apr 18, 2024 — 25% of workers between the ages of 23 and 35 were overqualified for their job in 2021, up from 21% in 2015. The problem is likely to get worse.