How many hurdles must youth clear?

Life doesn't seem all that wonderful for young people at the top of the ladder either. Most come from one-child families, and are under immense family pressure to excel in education and land a good job. But despite being better educated than the earlier generation, they still find it difficult to get employment because of the tough competition in the job market.

Driven by prestige, all families want their children to go to universities rather than vocational institutes. As a result, the unemployment rate among graduates is much higher in China than the overall jobless rate.

The strict family planning policy has generated a competition for wives, too. The skewed gender ratio the policy has led to means young men have to get a job, a car and an apartment to get married. Also finding a suitable wife in China's male-dominated society has become more complicated because girls are performing better than boys in school, and many Chinese men still prefer women less educated than them as wives. If, for instance, "A-grade" (in terms of education) men marry "B-grade" women, and "B-grade" men to marry "C-grade" women, where does that leave "A-grade" women and "C-grade" men?

Young women also feel frustrated because employers still favor men in management or professional-level posts despite women performing better than men in academics.

The plight of youths is just another element of the great stress afflicting Chinese society. Although the government is taking some measures to address the frustrations of the youths, they could test China's socio-political stability as economic growth is likely to slow down in the coming years. To address the serious problem, China's leadership needs to carry out an intensive study and implement the resultant suggested measures.

The author is executive director of the Asian Century Institute.

The Globalist

(China Daily 08/19/2014 page9)