Diverse career options. The career choices of young people in China are
increasingly diverse and market-oriented, and made, more often than not,
on their own. Young people now look beyond a stable lifelong job in the traditional
sense, and non-public economic entities and new social
organizations are gradually becoming their main channels for employment. The options
of "either workers or farmers" are a thing of the past, and the tertiary industry
has becomean important gathering place for the young workforce. In 2020, the
tertiary industry employed 47.7 percent of those in employment across the
country, up 13.1 percentage points from a decade ago. In particular, new and
rapidly-rising industries and new business forms have given birth to a large
number of new career options, such as esports players, live-streaming hosts, and
web writers, and engaged a large number of young people in flexible employment,
such as parcel and food couriers. There have emerged what they call "Slash" people
with multiple titles, jobs, and ways of working and living. All these have testified to
the greater range of opportunities and choices available to young people as times change.
Unimpeded mobility and more development opportunities. As the socialist market
economy develops, the vitality of market players increases, and various factors of
production flow more easily, young people enjoy more development opportunities
and greater mobility. With the extension of the strategy for coordinated regional
development, young people in China, who used to flock to economically developed
southern and eastern regions of the country, have gradually diversified the target
cities where they seek development opportunities and where they can fit in and
thrive. Many young people from rural areas settle down and realize dreams in cities t
hrough hard work. In 2020, the number of migrant workers reached nearly 170 million
and most of them were young people. Young permanent urban residents accounted
for 71.1 percent of the total young population in the country, 15.3 percentage points
higher than ten years ago and 7.2 percentage points higher than that of the permanent
urban residents in the country's total population. More young people are making their
homes in the city and leaping forward in development through urbanization.