For months, 27-year-old Ma Yongjian kept his whereabouts a secret from his parents. Although he dropped out of a computer science master’s program last year, his parents still believed he was attending graduate school, a deception born out of a desire to spare them worry.

Every morning, as his dormitory roommates headed to campus, Ma wandered aimlessly through downtown Beijing. He spent hours sitting in public parks or watching stray cats. Earlier this year, he traveled to Dali in Yunnan Province—a destination famous for its picturesque mountains and relaxed lifestyle, and a magnet for wandering Chinese youths.

Witnessing the rise of artificial intelligence and a relentless wave of layoffs at tech giants, Ma became convinced that landing a decent job was nearly impossible, leaving him with little reason to continue his studies.

"In the past, everyone expected life to keep improving and incomes to steadily rise," Ma said. "But things are different now. When I look toward the future, I see very few reasons for hope."

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal on the 17th (local time), a generation born during China's economic boom has reached adulthood only to find shrinking opportunities. Born in the 1990s and 2000s, China’s Gen Z grew up believing that studying hard and attending a good university would guarantee a stable life, and that they would naturally surpass their parents' standard of living. However, with an accumulation of job losses, milestones of adulthood—such as economic independence, stable careers, marriage, and starting a family—are increasingly slipping out of reach.

As of August, China’s urban youth unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 (excluding students) hovered around 19%, more than double the U.S. rate of roughly 9%. This year, a record-breaking 12.7 million college graduates entered the job market.

Steven Barnett, a professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong and former head of the IMF’s China division, estimates that total employment in China's urban areas is currently about 7% lower than it would have been had pre-pandemic job growth trends continued. This translates to a deficit of approximately 37 million jobs.

Zhang Tian, 27, majored in landscape architecture, but graduated around the time the property bubble burst in 2021. Though she initially secured a job at a real estate developer, she was laid off within six months, and lost her subsequent job late last year. Marriage to her boyfriend of five years is entirely out of the question.

"Dating and falling in love are matters of emotion, but getting married and having children are matters of economics," she said.

The Double Blow of Economic Slowdown and AI

Chinese tech giants once expanded hiring aggressively to match the explosive growth of internet platforms and e-commerce markets. However, beginning in the second half of 2021, regulatory tightening and economic deceleration forced companies to scale back headcounts. Recently, as artificial intelligence technology matures, companies are actively replacing routine and repetitive tasks with AI or cutting back on new hiring altogether.

While tech firms actively recruit specialized talent to develop and deploy AI, the demand for existing operational staff has plummeted, raising entry barriers for young job seekers. Major tech companies like Alibaba and ByteDance have quietly trimmed their workforces without public announcements. Insiders familiar with the internal operations note that AI technology has served as a key driver behind these layoffs. Across other industries, ranging from filmmaking to finance, AI-driven reductions in entry-level hiring are becoming the norm.

Human resources managers at several companies explain that with AI capable of executing related tasks, they no longer feel the necessity to aggressively recruit inexperienced entry-level workers as they once did. These firms are deploying AI agents as "digital employees" for customer service, sales, accounting, data analysis, and human resources management.

An analysis by ShanghaiTech University of 700 million job postings across five major Chinese recruitment platforms revealed that AI has dealt the heaviest blow to hiring demand for junior and mid-level workers with one to three years of experience. The report concluded that large language models (LLMs) are now handling these tasks, prompting companies to eliminate low-wage entry-level jobs.

Platform Labor Under Threat and Government Concern

As corporate full-time positions dwindle, young job seekers have turned to platform labor, but even this sector is far from a safe haven. According to China's New Employment Form Research Center, flexible workers without formal employment contracts are projected to surge from 280 million last year to 320 million this year—accounting for over 40% of China's entire urban workforce. However, even platform jobs such as delivery services, ride-hailing, and live streaming are being threatened by the rapid integration of robotaxis and various automated robots.

Authorities in Beijing are growing increasingly anxious. According to insiders, when Vice Premier He Lifeng surveyed major corporations last year regarding the employment impact of AI, some companies warned that over 30% of existing jobs could vanish. In response, the government has warned firms not to reduce employment even if they adopt AI.

In one notable case, a company that replaced quality control supervisors with AI was ordered by a court to pay damages. According to court rulings and the employee’s legal counsel, the firm was ordered to pay approximately $38,000 to the terminated worker. Another Chinese man whose map data collection duties were usurped by AI successfully filed for labor arbitration and secured compensation.

In December of last year, the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau emphasized: "Employers must enjoy the benefits of technological advancement while simultaneously bearing social responsibilities."

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