China's young people are left with "free time worth more than thousands of yuan" as they "lay down" due to economic slowdown

Faced with diminishing job prospects as the economy slows, Chu Yi is choosing to: sleep flatThis is a Chinese term for people who work hard enough to spend time doing what they love.

The 23-year-old Shanghai-based woman said she used to work at a fashion company, but quit her job two years ago because she worked too much overtime and didn’t like her boss.

Chu is currently working from home just one day a week for a travel agency, which gives him plenty of time to practice tattooing as part of a six-month apprenticeship to become a full-time tattoo artist.

And she’s not the only one “lying”. Although there is no data on how many young Chinese are opting out of traditional corporate jobs, youth unemployment has risen to its highest level. Record high of 21.3% in June With the economy still struggling to return to pre-pandemic growth levels, some Chinese university graduates said they are cutting back on funds to find sources of income.

“For me, there’s not much point in working,” Chu says. “Most of it seems to be about getting the manager’s job done and making the manager happy. So I decided I didn’t want to work.”

There are approximately 280 million young Chinese chew lovers born between 1995 and 2010, and research shows that Generation Z is the most pessimistic of all age groups in the country.

Appeasing this generation has become a key policy challenge for President Xi Jinping amid the slowest economic growth in nearly half a century, with the Ministry of Human Resources last month pledging further efforts in 2024 to support employment, especially for young people. said it was necessary.

Zhou Yun, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan, said that while it may appear that some young people are moving away from competition within companies, their pessimism about their future cannot be overlooked. .

My current salary is not much, but it is enough to cover my daily living expenses.Free time is worth more than a few thousand yuan

Chewy

As China’s economy slows and the labor market remains tight, “it will be very difficult for young people to overcome severe social inequality, including increased political control and a bleak economic outlook,” Zhou said. Stated.

All of this combines to encourage young people like Chu to prioritize their own well-being and profits over what she calls the “endless pressure” of corporate work.

Chu said she is now very happy and believes her choices were “worth it.”

“My current salary is not much, but it is enough to cover my daily living expenses. Free time is much more valuable than a few thousand yuan,” she said.

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