Rather than celebrating finishing university, this summer mainland Chinese graduates shared photos of themselves theatrically throwing their degrees into bins, underscoring the bleak outlook as youth unemployment sits at a record high.
The jobless rate could rise even further this summer, analysts warned, providing another headache for China as it tries to jumpstart its sluggish post-Covid economy.
With well-paid jobs few and far between, young people were opting to remain in university, while others are scrambling for limited government jobs as opportunities in the private sector dry up.
Sampson Li, who graduated this month with a master's in software engineering, has given up to apply for a doctorate.
The 24-year-old passed three interviews at a major tech firm in Shenzhen before the employer said it had frozen recruitments.
"Three other firms asked me to take a lower pay than the market rate," he said. "I can't survive with that salary in this city."
May's jobless rate for people aged 16-24 hit 20.8 percent, an increase on the previous record of 20.4 percent hit in April.
Macquarie Group chief China economist Larry Hu warned the figure could rise further in July when 11.6 million more college graduates start looking for work.
"Corporates are reluctant to hire because of soft consumer demand, while consumers are reluctant to spend because of the weak labor market," he said. "Policy is the only game changer at this stage."
Premier Li Qiang has pledged to ensure stable job opportunities for young people.
"We have to take measures to stabilize the scale of employment in manufacturing and foreign trade enterprises, optimize university curriculums, and improve the quality of vocational education and skills training based on the market demand," Li said.
However, a hoped-for raft of stimulus measures for the economy, including help to boost the jobs market, fell flat, as did a recent rate cut, being less than expected.
One of the reasons China's once-freewheeling private sector is seeing much slower growth is because of a sweeping crackdown on property companies, tech giants and private tutoring firms.
"Private firms provide up to 80 percent of China's urban jobs," said Yu Jie, a senior research fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House.
These sectors relied on "young people willing to work long hours for lower salaries," she said.
Liu Qian, armed with a fintech degree, has been job hunting for the past six months. "There were dozens of fintech start-ups when I entered university, but many have disappeared over the past two years after rules were tightened," she said. "My parents now want me to study for the civil services exam."
The odds are tough, though.
More than 7.7 million people took the exam this year to qualify for about 200,000 jobs at national and provincial levels.
Frustration over the fierce rivalry for any well-paying work has fueled the memes of throwing away degrees, with grads also posting photos of themselves sprawled on the ground or in poses of despair. The pictures are a reference to the now-prevalent counterculture of "lying flat" - the young rejecting the rat race of urban life for a simpler, less professionally ambitious life.
Services remain a rare bright spot with millions traveling and dining out after pandemic curbs were lifted in December.
But the lack of opportunities for vocational training means young people are ill-equipped to work in it, Yu said.
Many of the jobs that are available are poorly paid and arduous.
Tan Yong, 17, moved to Shenzhen from Meizhou last year after dropping out of high school. He first found work at an assembly line making air conditioners, but was forced to leave after six months when the production line moved to Vietnam.
Now he works as a rider for a food delivery company.
"The work is difficult, and we make less than five yuan on most deliveries," he said.
"But many young people don't want to work in factories where you need to stand for nearly seven hours."
