Economic prospects are sparse for American graduates in tough Chinese job market
- Rick Dunham
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
Part 2 of a two-part series
By CORAZON SCHEPPY
Global Business Journalism reporter
“I sent out more than a hundred applications and got maybe 20 or so callbacks. Zero offers,” Carmen Chen, a graduate from Tsinghua University said. “I thought I was ready. But reality hit me way harder than I had imagined.”
It was graduation season in Beijing, and the city buzzed with excitement as students celebrated their new beginnings. But if anything, the vibrancy of youthful energy around her only seemed to frustrate her more.
As a Chinese American student of Chinese Language and Literature, Chen had wanted badly to stay on in China with her friends and connections after four years of undergraduate studies. Even though many of her local peers are struggling to find jobs as the Chinese economy slows and many big employers are slashing head counts, Chen had underestimated how hard it would be to find work. Anywhere.
Chen had believed herself well-prepared for the tough Chinese job market. She is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Even before going to Tsinghua to study Chinese, she had scored an average of 90+ on each category in her Chinese Language Exam, although Chinese is never used at home by her family. Her parents migrated to the United States from China long ago, and her brother married an American girl.
She put in dedicated efforts, wanting to make things work. In school, she co-founded the Tsinghua University American Students Association and was actively involved in social projects.
But as soon as her job-hunting started, the pressure hit her like a giant wall of waves. Whenever she saw any posted job openings that slightly matches her skills, she submitted her resume. She quickly learned that the lessons she was taught in job fairs on campus “have been simplified and idealized.”
She aimed for operations and marketing roles with average salaries, just enough to cover rent, food, and occasional spending on cosmetics. But even these modest expectations seemed out of reach.
“I was expecting too much,” Chen said.
Was COVID to blame?
Initially, Chen thought the Chinese government’s strict pandemic health restrictions were to blame. Back in January 2020 when COVID-19 first hit, China went into full lockdown. The government extended the Spring Festival holiday, delayed schools’ reopenings, and strict 14-day quarantines. Entire industries suffered. The accommodation and catering sector took the hardest hit, plummeting by 35.3%, followed by wholesale and retail, according to Google Trends.
Tourism, a major economic driver, collapsed. During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, national tourism revenue dropped by a staggering 68.8% compared to the previous year, as reported by Chinese publication People.cn.
With limited travel, small businesses shutting down, and consumer confidence at an all-time low, Chen felt the weight of the crisis firsthand. Even as China gradually eased restrictions, the job market remained unforgiving. While government initiatives aimed to boost employment, the reality was stark, finding work fresh out of college felt nearly impossible.
“During that time, I was stressed out seeing that it’s not working for me,” said Chen. “Because the jobs I wanted are hard to get and even the jobs I don’t want had tons of competitors.”
The situation worsened because people were unsure about job stability and income growth, which made them hesitant to spend and ultimately hurt the overall economy, explained Sam Feng, investment associate at a private equity firm. Consumers prioritized saving money and slowly shifted spending trends, which eventually had adverse effects on service providers and manufacturers, “leading to entrepreneurs hesitant to borrow money, fearing potential repayment challenges,” Feng added.
On the production side, lack of confidence in future performance discouraged producers from seeking bank loans to expand their production capacity. Therefore, they remain reluctant to hire more employees to stimulate employment. Basically, the prevailing poor expectations impede the overall economic turnaround, Feng explained.
The Chinese government recognized the crisis early on. At the April 15, 2020, Politburo Standing Committee meeting, officials declared employment their top priority in responding to the economic fallout. With micro and small-sized enterprises accounting for nearly 80% of jobs, authorities directed fiscal, monetary, and credit policies toward supporting these businesses. By July 2020, 13 government ministries, including the National Development and Reform Commission, launched initiatives to encourage alternative job opportunities in online services, webcasting, and self-employment.
The Chinese government and financial institutions have implemented several measures. Big Chinese banks have cut interest rates on yuan deposits, intending to reduce lending costs and stimulate money flow to the real economy. But this move also comes with potential risks in yuan depreciation and capital outflow.
In addition, a critical driver of China’s sluggish economy is the property market bust. China’s economic growth has been impacted by Beijing’s attempts to correct an overheated property market downturn and address major developers’ debt troubles. The bursting of the property bubble, coupled with high levels of debt incurred from large-scale infrastructure projects, has affected job availability.
The heavy reliance on investment and real estate at the expense of household consumption has created a structural imbalance within the Chinese economy. This has in turn led to subdued investment in the private sector, further exacerbating the job market situation. The imbalance between consumption and investment is profound, with economists comparing it to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s, before its “lost decades” economic stagnation.
Job market downturn in China
To be fair, it’s not just Americans that are having a hard time finding jobs in China. Chinese young graduates are having this problem too. According to the 2024 annual data published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, unemployment rate in China ages 16 to 24 rose to 18.8% in August 2024 before dipping to 15.7% in December. For ages 25 to 29, it was 6.6% in December.
Publication had been suspended for six months when China’s urban youth unemployment rate hit a record 21.3% in May 2023, up from 15.4% two years earlier. When the numbers were released again, the methodology had changed to exclude university students.
There are just too many of them. China is expecting 12.22 million college graduates in 2025, an increase of 430,000 from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Education. The massive number of surplus jobseekers has also coincided with a tightening job market as the Chinese economy records sluggish growth.
If Chinese graduates are already struggling to secure positions, the situation is even worse for American students in China. Of the roughly 1,100 American students, many will find themselves competing for the same limited job openings, often without the advantage of local networks or native language fluency.
How China’s job market is affected by the global economy
“The outlook for the global economy does not seem to be very encouraging as the recovery is slow, with global growth estimated to remain around 3% in 2024 and appears to slightly recover to a moderate growth of 3.3% in 2025,” said Professor Gao Xudong from Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management. “The world isn’t exactly calm right now, and the biggest direct impact on China is our exports.”
China’s current challenges aren’t solely influenced by domestic market dynamics. As Srinivasa Rao Nagarjuna, Chief Economist and President at Bajaj Finserv Limited in India, mentioned during the World Economic Forum, the global economy is grappling with multiple interconnected crises, including inflation, disrupted supply chains, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors have combined to create a “polycrisis,” leaving global economic growth relatively sluggish and uncertain.
One of the most prominent impacts on China’s economy is their biggest trading partner, the United States. With the recent increase of tariffs rate applied to countries like Mexico and Canada, China faced the hardest hit of 20% increase on import and export activities, as mentioned by Reuters in 2025.
The trade war has prompted significant industrial shifts. For example, Apple is moving parts of its business to Southeast Asia and even exploring India. Gao explained this decision stems from two main reasons: first, rising labor costs in China, which Apple believes could negatively affect profits. And second, the increasing tension in U.S.-China relations has created uncertainty.
Although China’s exports to the United States, increased in recent years, the growth rate has significantly slowed. According to Nikkei Asia, U.S. trade with China has dropped to its lowest share since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. From January to November 2024, the U.S. share of China’s total trade decreased to 14.6%, while China’s share of total U.S. imports and exports fell to 11.2%.
This decline has a substantial impact on many Chinese businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises heavily dependent on exports to the United States. Besides this, the implications go beyond mere trade. It’s not just China’s growth rate that has slowed down, the entire global economy is also feeling the strain.
“It isn’t just a trade issue," said Professor Gao. "For example, TikTok ban and Huawei. Huawei didn’t have substantial operations in the U.S., yet the U.S. still restricted its business globally, significantly affecting the company.”
American companies are growing increasingly nervous about their business operations, as well.
“The main driver is the growing perception among U.S. companies that investing in China has become too risky," said Gao, "not necessarily because China dislikes them, but because the U.S. government finds extensive investments in China inappropriate. As a result, companies like Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and others are encouraged either to return to the U.S. or relocate elsewhere. Labor cost issues in China are manageable through policy adjustments. The real issue lies in the departure of these leading companies, which inevitably pulls their supporting enterprises along with them. Those supporting businesses aren’t choosing to leave voluntarily, they’re simply following the larger corporations they depend on.”
The slow, yet painful shift in U.S.-China relations has made direct exports from China to the U.S. increasingly difficult. Consequently, many Chinese firms are investing directly in Southeast Asia and Mexico. By investing there, their products become Southeast Asian or Mexican, effectively bypassing tariffs on Chinese goods. With President Donald Trump imposing tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese-made products in early 2025, this shift became even more important.
Becky’s story
“Studying in China has limited my career options because returning to the U.S. leaves me at a disadvantage, since I don’t have work experience abroad.” said Becky, a pseudonym, an American student studying for a master's degree in visual communication design at a university in Beijing.
She earned her undergraduate degree from the same institution but took a two-year gap, and she returned to school because finding a job right after graduation was nearly impossible. She is preparing to graduate in 2025.
During her senior year, Becky applied to big international companies such as P&G, Amazon, and an app under Chinese tech-giant Baidu. Each application process turned into a harsh reality check. P&G immediately rejected her after she listed her nationality as American.
“After submitting all my details, including my nationality and location, I got instantly rejected,” Becky said. “When I reached out, they told me they simply don’t hire foreigners.”
Her interview with Amazon was equally frustrating. It was a group interview involving seven or eight candidates, marred by network delays and technical issues. It was impossible to effectively communicate anything meaningful. The process with Baidu’s app seemed promising at first.
After four rounds of interviews, the Human Resources department asked Becky to wait through a holiday period for feedback. But when the holiday ended and Becky reached out again, she learned she had been rejected.
In China, foreign students must obtain specific internship permits involving extensive paperwork, including student documentation, approval from universities, internship verification stamped by the company, and detailed corporate documents such as business licenses and legal representative information. For many Chinese companies, this hassle outweighs the benefit of hiring foreign interns.
“My advantage is that I speak English, but it’s also my biggest disadvantage,” Becky said.
She also mentioned that she hadn’t encountered any government initiatives specifically aimed at supporting international graduates in finding employment.
Addressing these employment challenges, Professor Gao offered his insights. He said the problem with employment largely boils down to two main factors: structural mismatch and the broader economic slowdown.
“Jobs are available, but graduates simply don’t want them. For example, one employer told me that home renovation jobs pay well, upwards of ten thousand RMB per month, but graduates find it too demanding to learn the necessary skills,” Gao said.
Another example Gao provided was graduates’ reluctance to relocate. Many students won’t consider moving to smaller or less developed cities, even if decent opportunities exist there. For instance, the construction industry, although facing challenges recently, struggles significantly to recruit workers.
“It’s not that jobs aren’t available, it’s that the available jobs don’t match the graduates’ expectations,” he said.
Gao also recognized the broader economic issue: China’s slowdown from double-digit GDP growth rates to around 5% has undeniably reduced job opportunities across the board.
However, for foreign students, moving to smaller cities or remote areas is often impractical, as these places lack the administrative experience or infrastructure to manage the complicated paperwork required for their internships and employment.
Chen and the undetermined future
In addition to the individual students being impacted by the slow burn from the job market, their families also face vulnerability from this uncertainty. The economic burden of continuing to support their adult children, even after an expensive college education, has not only exacerbated families’ reluctance to spend but has also taken a heavy psychological toll on both parents and their children.
Tuition fees can be expensive, and the total cost of education includes room and board, in addition to other living essentials, which adds up to a substantial sum. Educational investment has changed since the days when better education inevitably led to better jobs. With the job market in its current state, students often need help from parents and their connections, which makes life for struggling families even harder. This phenomenon of reliance on families is creating both family and societal tensions.
“My initial thought when we sent her abroad was that our daughter can support herself when she comes back to America and find a decent job, but now it seems like I need to live till 100,” said Chen’s mother.
Chen is among the lucky few who have strong family support behind her. Now they own a successful restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, which has been the financial backbone for her entire family. Her parents have also invested in properties in both the United States and China.
But her family’s influence and connections did not extend to the companies in China’s major cities, where Chen sought opportunities. This disconnect highlights a challenge for American students. Even with a supportive family background, the path to professional success in China can be fraught with barriers that familial connections and financial stability alone cannot surmount.
Chen’s mother was “extremely worried that a Tsinghua degree would be the highest peak in life,” but her dad had a different perspective. He suggested that Chen should start her own small business, especially since she was so passionate about social media.
Following this advice, Chen began her entrepreneurial journey, focusing on social media and e-commerce. She leveraged her social media skills for business promotion and collaborations, eventually setting up two online stores — one selling press-on nails and the other jewelry.
Although her income from these ventures is not yet stable, Chen is not too concerned. She is living at home, which eases her financial worries as she builds her business.
“There are ways to revive the job market, but it will take collective efforts. This requires hard work, increased earnings, and more spending. The improvement in each individual’s life is a direct result of positive economic momentum,” said Feng.
Chen and Becky’s stories might not represent every American student who has ventured to China. After all, many eventually returned home, but their journey highlights the struggles, challenges, and transformative moments students often face when entering their career stage.
“I still fly to China once in a while,” Chen said. “But it feels different now. I’m not chasing a career there anymore.”
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