80 Million Chinese May Already Be Out Of Work

CNN: 80 million Chinese may already be out of work. 9 million more will soon be competing for jobs, too

Wang is used to job hunting in China.

The 26-year old tech worker spent the last year jumping from one startup to another in what already felt like a precarious job market. But when he was laid off again in January, this time from a Beijing-based internet company, he never expected things to become as difficult as they are.

Last year "already felt like living in a hell mode," Wang told CNN Business in a telephone interview. "But 2020 is even worse. The coronavirus is like a head-on blow."

Wang is not his full name. He asked CNN Business to not use his entire name because he didn't want friends or family to know the details of his unemployment — a fear echoed by others in China who spoke about losing their jobs. Some also voiced concerns that making their personal predicament public could hurt their chances of finding work.

The pandemic all but shut down China for several weeks this year, wreaking havoc on the world's second largest economy and forcing millions of people out of work.

The full scale of how many people have lost their jobs in the country is hard to capture. Data from Beijing is notoriously opaque, and the official unemployment rate — which only tracks jobless numbers in urban areas — has barely moved beyond 4% to just over 5% for years.

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WNU Editor: My friends and contacts in China are telling me that a lot of people are either unemployed or working part-time. And as for the official Chinese stat saying that there is only an urban unemployment of 5.9% .... I am sure no one in China believes them.