[wholemodern]

the laying flat movement has mostly to do with lack of jobs/opportunity for young people.

- there's a societal trend to not hire people over the age of 30-35 in China. after months of looking for work, they've given up

- there's an unofficial 70% youth unemployment rate, and with 12 million new grads each year and intense competition for government work, sometimes hundred of applicants for a single stable government spot, the new grads give up

- the young generation has realized that no house/car/marriage/kid (没房没车没妻子) is a good way to live, and there's no pressure on them to create a life. so they lay flat. thus the abysmal marriage/child rate in China, which is near the bottom of world ranking

- the new grads don't want to work in a factory, day or night shift, for $2/hour.

- if the workers are in 1st tier cities, they can barely save up any money working and living there, due to the recent 50% reduction in wages ($1000/month -> $500/month) and increased spending on necessities. so it's easier for them to just not work and live off of parents.

[spywaregorilla]

> there's a societal trend to not hire people over the age of 30-35 in China

> there's an unofficial 70% youth unemployment rate

> , due to the recent 50% reduction in wages

I couldn't find anything on these points. The second one seems completely unbelievable while also being at odds with the first claim.

What are you referring to?

[bobthepanda]

The last official youth employment hit over 20% before China stopped publishing the figure.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-stop-releasing-you...

Basically there is a trend of overeducation; China is producing millions more university graduates than it needs, without enough white collar jobs, and at the same time there are a lot of job openings in much more poorly paid factory work. This is not unique in East Asia, South Korea also has a lot of youth unemployment for similar reasons. https://keia.org/the-peninsula/low-youth-employment-in-korea...

Also, China is currently suffering from deflation because it produces many more goods than it can consume or export, and wages are also being cut.

[wholemodern]

It's typically on Chinese social media apps, and when they get popular they get taken down immediately by the government

here are some remnants in non-chinese websites.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2023-06/26/c_1129716071.htm

https://botanwang.com/articles/202308/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%...

https://www.voachinese.com/a/more-chinese-white-collar-worke...

if you want to verify secondary effects: Retail sales of passenger cars in China declined to 1.095 million units, down 21% from a year earlier and 46% from January. https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/chinas-vehicle-sales-drop.... A decline of real estate development investment widened to 9.5% in the first quarter from 9% in the first two months https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-16/china-hom... Stingy Chinese shoppers are returning their goods, erasing up to 75% of their sales value.https://fortune.com/asia/2024/04/17/luxury-brands-new-headac...

[nradov]

Popping the residential real estate investment bubble was probably the root cause behind the collapse in sales of cars, luxury goods, and other consumer products. A lot of consumers who had made highly leveraged investments on unoccupied apartments in "ghost cities" were sitting on significant paper wealth for a few years and felt comfortable spending money. Now that has largely evaporated.

[stevenae]

Last time I tracked this closely: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL4N3960Z5/

[Izkata]

> lack of jobs/opportunity for young people.

> there's a societal trend to not hire people over the age of 30-35 in China

Did you mean "under" or is it more complicated than "young people"?