cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/48941855

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China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the unemployment rate for youths aged 16 to 24 in November 2025 was 16.9 per cent.

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In comparison, the unemployment rate for the population group reached as high as 18.9 per cent in August 2025.

In view of the high unemployment rate, some Chinese youths decided to look for employment opportunities overseas.

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A Human Resources professional in China, who wishes only to be known as Xiao Bo, shared that he had been preparing for emigration for three years.

He shared that his plan was either to become a professional caregiver in Australia or to join the Légion Étrangère, a French military unit composed of foreign nationals.

As an HR professional at a state-owned enterprise in China, Xiao Bo revealed that he began planning after witnessing firsthand how headcounts in companies continued shrinking over the years.

Reduced headcount also made job competition more intense.

For instance, Xiao Bo shared that his company used to select 15 people from 400 candidates for a position that pays a monthly salary of 3,500 yuan (S$642) in 2022.

In 2023, 1,000 candidates applied for eight such positions at his company.

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Besides China’s poor economic outlook, Xiao Bo also cited the toxic work environment in his current company as one of the push factors.

According to him, his company not only host communist ideology meetings on rest days but also monitors employees’ social media platforms weekly by connecting their private mobile phones to the company’s system.

When his company found out that Xiao Bo had donated cryptocurrencies to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia, it deducted 800 yuan (S$146) from his salary, leaving his total at 2,600 yuan (S$477).

This incident also eliminated his chances of getting a promotion in the company, as he was no longer considered faithful to China’s Russia-friendly stance in the Russia-Ukraine war.

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“There are only three options for young people in China nowadays: lie flat, join the rat race, or emigrate overseas. Joining the rat race is no longer an option, and emigration may soon no longer be an option. That is why I need to hurry up. I pray I can escape before emigration became impossible,” Xiao Bo said.

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Xiao Bo was not the only Chinese youth who was considering heading overseas.

A Chinese student currently studying overseas, surnamed Yong, told Zaobao that he had accumulated over 30,000 followers in a few months after posting content online about how ordinary Chinese citizens can emigrate.

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