Where are the jobless?

China’s economy has been slowing for 4-5 years. But monetary stimulus has a bad name. So where are the armies of jobless?

They are everywhere. Huge numbers of migrant workers have gone back to their roots in the countryside. I count 12-15 of my cousins and their grown-up kids who have done so in the past 3-4 years. In the countryside they earn much less but their cost of living is also lower now. “I cannot afford to work in Shenzhen any more”, chuckles Jinghuai, my cousin, a lorry driver, who has gone back to rural Hubei Province where we grew up together.

Also out of work are armies of privileged university graduates who have grown up in the cities. They cannot get the kind of jobs they desire and are squandering their time with WeChat.

Dashed hopes all around. And tensions are rising but not alarmingly.

Last night I met a senior executive at Morris, a big sofa-maker based in coastal Zhejiang Province. He complained about difficulties of hiring enough workers.