'Fake Internship Experience' Bought and Sold... The Black Market Created by Youth Unemployment in China

China Youth Unemployment Rate at 21.3% in June
"Document Forgery Thrives Despite Being Illegal"

As youth unemployment in China soars to an all-time high, services that create 'fake internship experiences' are also thriving.

Dong Zijing, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, pointed out in an article published on the 19th in China Youth Daily that "as university graduation season approaches, additional services such as trading fake internship certificates and creating internship evaluation records are quietly emerging."

Beijing, China. [Image source=Pixabay]

Deputy Secretary Dong stated, "Document forgery is illegal, but this 'gray industrial chain' is still thriving," and advised, "Buying and selling fake internship certificates is unacceptable, so universities should effectively guide students to follow the right path."

He emphasized the need to eradicate 'fake interns' through strict management such as random inspections. He also suggested cracking down on businesses that produce false documents, strengthening supervision and punishment, and encouraging companies to pay more attention to nurturing internship trainees.

China's Youth Unemployment Rate Hits Another Record High of 21.3%

Meanwhile, China's youth unemployment rate continues to break records. The National Bureau of Statistics of China announced that the youth unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 reached 21.3% last month, setting a new record. This is 0.5 percentage points higher than the previous record of 20.8% in May.

China's youth unemployment rate has been rising steadily from 16.7% in December last year to 20.4% in April this year. This marked the first time the youth unemployment rate exceeded 20%.

Amid this, a pessimistic outlook has emerged as a record number of 11.58 million new university graduates are expected to flood the job market between July and August, likely pushing the youth unemployment rate even higher.

In this context, a new term "Jeon-eop Janyeo (全職兒女)" has emerged in China. It refers to children without jobs who take full responsibility for cooking and cleaning and receive a monthly allowance from their parents.

Most of these individuals have graduated from university but live at their parents' home, managing household chores, and reportedly receive about 720,000 to 1,000,000 Korean won per month. The Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) commented, "If both parents and children are genuinely happy, what problem is there with Jeon-eop Janyeo?"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.