China Unemployment Rate: Fierce unemployment in China! Providing food to 70,000 master’s degree holders

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China Unemployment Rate: In the midst of public concern about the dismal job market in China, it is claimed that in the year 2021, more than 70,000 master’s degree holders have worked in food delivery in China. News about this has started circulating on the internet. According to RFA, China’s official media outlets dismissed this figure as misinformation and rumour.

However, research by Asia Fact Check Lab found this widely circulated conjecture to be credible. The Chinese Cyberspace Administration used misinformation in its attempt to discredit claims to the contrary and to assuage concerns arising from domestic job shortages.

Let us tell you that unemployment is a burning issue in China. The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the nominal unemployment rate had reached a 20-year high in 2020, with 160 million people out of a job. In the year 2021, this number decreased slightly to 14 crores.

70,000 Delivery drivers with master’s degrees

According to the RFA, given the challenge of finding steady work, a large number of advanced degree holders have taken up jobs previously considered undesirable for those with higher education, ranging from driving taxis, waiting tables to delivering food. Video bloggers concerned about China’s stagnant job market soon began creating content based on data from industry reports published by Ile.me and Meichuan, two of the country’s largest takeout companies. His video estimates that there are “70,000 delivery drivers with master’s degrees” in China.

Shanghai Communist Party Committee mouthpiece

However, an article published by the website Shanghai Piao (Shanghai Debunking Rumor) called the claim a ‘specific rumour’. Piao is a website co-created by the Shanghai branch of the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Jiefang Daily, the mouthpiece of the Shanghai Communist Party Committee.

Reports from Meichuan and Ile.me

Meichuan and Ile.me are the two largest food delivery platforms in China, covering 90 percent of the market. They each surveyed a portion of their part-time delivery drivers on a number of questions including field of study, job satisfaction and education. Ile.me’s report surveyed 9,896 drivers, while Meichuan’s reported a sample of more than 118,000. Each report claimed that 1 percent of the survey’s sample population had a master’s degree or higher degree of education.

The vloggers put the total population of food delivery workers in China at 7 million, and estimated that 1 percent, or 70,000, have master’s degrees, according to a separate report by China’s official media, CCTV.

Sample of 118,000 people

The Shanghai Piao article attempts to debunk the bloggers’ claim that including part-time drivers in the survey samples skews their results, because of the high rate of college students working in those positions. . The article further claims that Meichuan’s report only sampled 118,000 people. Its findings cannot be applied to all delivery drivers in the country.

FCL found both the claims of Piao to be false. The criticism that the large number of part-time college students skewed the results is irrelevant, given that both industry surveys specified that less than 1 percent of their delivery drivers have a master’s degree or higher education degree. The sample sizes in both reports are statistically acceptable.

Lack of official data

The Shanghai Piao article further concluded that the estimate of 7 million workers and 70,000 drivers is a hodgepodge of numbers pulled together on social media, lacking official figures. AFCL found this allegation to be false. The 2020 figure of ‘total 7 million takeout drivers’ comes from China’s National Postal Service, the government agency responsible for overseeing delivery drivers in the country. This figure has also been quoted in a report on CCTV’s own economic channel.