Unemployment generally only measures the percentage of people who are seeking work but unable to find it. Those who don’t work because they are otherwise taken care of aren’t usually counted. That’s actually the source of the discrepancy in the article so the headline is bs imo.
I’m all for reducing our working hours as a population though. More productivity should equal less work, not more GDP
You also have the issue of what to do with NEET young adults. What happens if a large class of people are created that don't have a way to contribute to the economy? How are they going to be able to interact with the economy as they are going to be given the lowest social status due to their lack of work?
There are descriptions of embittered and/or depressed youth. They are not describing young people so well cared for (by the state) that they are opting out.
And older family will eventually perish or cease to have the means. Something must take the place to ensure production at certain levels.
Also: fewer hours per job, with an unchanging workload would lead to more jobs. Not fewer. Unless automation, computing or improved engineering lower the overall effort.
Edit to add one more point: China is Capitalist. The land use thing is communist, but fundamentally they went capitalist decades ago. The notion that they're doling out buckets of money to people mystifies me (building unnecessary infrastructure is a job).
If someone has a source or refutation, I'll click and read, but until then I'll run with what I find.
They should clarify for themselves I guess, but by my reading they were commenting on the general topic of "unemployment metrics" rather than the specific situation in the article. If that's the case it'd be a different discussion entirely.
I'd hope that people understand that the PRC doesn't have a robust social safety net as it stands currently.
This! Every election is about politicians who want to create jobs. I want to vote for someone who wants us to have less jobs! I thought technology was supposed to make us more productive for more free time.
Before that can happen, we (as the non-ownership class) need to shift away from the capitalist mode of production, into a more advanced economy. On a global scale this is incredibly difficult, since the United States has a hegemonic influence over global economic affairs, and has been hostile to any states that attempt to subvert the capitalist mode. This is kinda sorta beginning to wane, but it'll be a couple decades still until we see some real progress IMO.
How are their internet boards looking? I've noticed a kind of weird way to tell what's going on on the street is to observe actions of the population. Brazil has a very high youth unemployment. Most of the edge lord NEET boards are full of Brazilian kids.
Fun fact: The waiting time for organ transplants in China is about an order of magnitude shorter than in the rest of the world. This is purely because of China's large population and not because of any other reason at all.
I wonder how this compares to other countries when you use the same broader definition. The article only compared it to overall US unemployment which is useless to be honest.