BEIJING - Millions of graduates are entering China's job market at a time of soaring youth unemployment.
Recently, the figure has hit a record every month, with 21.3 percent of people aged 16 to 24 jobless in June.
Authorities abruptly said they would stop publishing age-related employment data, prompting public scepticism and concern over youth joblessness in the world's second-largest economy.
At career fairs in Beijing this week, attendees described a challenging landscape for inexperienced candidates hoping to land their first or second jobs.
China has released a raft of indicators in recent months pointing to a slowdown in the country's post-Covid economic rebound, with weak consumer demand making firms reluctant to hire.
"Recent activity data generally came on the weaker side, suggesting that the recovery is stalling," Jing Liu, Greater China chief economist at HSBC wrote in a note this week.
"This has been reflected by the labour market data," she added.
Xie Wei, a 39-year-old hiring manager at a telecommunications services firm, told AFP that companies that had survived three years of disruption during China's zero-Covid pandemic restrictions were now more selective when taking on new employees.
The companies that have bounced back "will pick a direction, and this direction is first of all that the company must survive," he said.
He also said he felt that young workers, especially those born after the mid-1990s, "are lacking psychological pressure, so they might be lazier" -- echoing the government's stance that the youth should be willing to endure hardship.
China has in recent weeks announced a series of measures to boost consumption, including large-scale festivals and sporting events, as well as an increase in spending on services involving catering and healthcare.
But economists have said the government needs to do more to boost consumers' and employers' confidence.