China’s high-class unemployment problem

China’s record 20.4% youth unemployment, Nancy Qian writes May25 in Project Syndicate, will “weaken the China’s economy near- and long-term prospects.” China’s high-tech economy hasn’t grown fast enough to absorb the explosion of tertiary graduates. In 2000, China’s tertiary education rate was only 7%, vs. 63% today, on par with Germany. And a third of China’s college graduates have degrees in engineering. Another 11.6 million graduates of Chinese universities and vocational schools will enter the job market in June. China’s government is focused single-mindedly on leading the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, namely the application of AI, Big Data and high-speed, low-latency communications to manufacturing, transportation and logistics. It has achieved remarkable success in demonstration projects in manufacturing, ports, and mining. China has come up the learning curve in the industrial applications of AI rapidly, and may be able to absorb its surge of skilled professionals into new businesses faster than Western analysts expect.