China’s economy continues to decline, with the job market rapidly shrinking, leading to more and more young people from the post-2000 generation being forced to exit the competitive system. They are choosing to “lie flat” and even self-mockingly calling themselves “rat people.” Many interviewees have pointed out that job opportunities are scarce, incomes are not enough to make a living, coupled with a lack of trust in the Chinese Communist system, leading them to lose hope in marriage, childbearing, and life planning. This low-desire survival state is becoming a common reality for contemporary Chinese youth.
青島 post-2000 female college graduate Xiaoxue’s life trajectory is a microcosm of the above-mentioned structural dilemma. She told The Epoch Times that she graduated in July 2022 with a major in early childhood education, right in the period of continued decline in the birth rate, “In these years, the population has decreased, the birth rate has decreased, young people are not getting married and having children, so many kindergartens have closed down.”
After graduation, Xiaoxue sent out multiple resumes but “only one educational training institution hired me as an office clerk.” However, due to the policy of cracking down on training institutions, the company operated quietly, and she was dismissed three months later. Afterwards, she and her classmates chose to take the postgraduate entrance examination in the hope of “alleviating the difficult situation of employment,” but ended up failing due to a reduction in enrollment quotas and an increase in the number of applicants.
This situation is not an isolated case. Recently, legal scholar Yuan Hongbing in Australia quoted insiders from the system, stating that the employment rate of Chinese university graduates in 2025 is only about 60%, including a large number of “flexible employment,” indicating that the actual scale of unemployment is even larger. Over time, the total number of unemployed university graduates has approached nearly 20 million.
The employment pressure on Chinese youth is still intensifying. According to a report by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, China will welcome a record 12.7 million university graduates in 2026, an increase of about 4% from 2025.
Yuan Hongbing emphasized that as the most knowledgeable group, they have long been in a state of unemployment or underemployment, directly shaking the confidence of the youth in the future.
After failing the postgraduate entrance examination and experiencing unemployment again, Xiaoxue returned home and began what she called the “rat person” life. She shared an apartment with relatives, with them shouldering the rent to alleviate the pressure. She described her daily routine, “Wake up at 11 am, order takeout at 12 pm, have dinner at 8 pm, and go to bed at two or three in the morning.” Almost never going out or socializing, she lived off the savings from the past.
“I basically don’t leave the house unless necessary, staying in, using the computer, and scrolling through my phone,” she admitted, stating that most of her classmates also lead a similar home-bound life, connecting only through their phones. “In reality, it’s just lying flat, there’s no way around it, finding a job is just too difficult.”
According to The Epoch Times, the term “rat person” has rapidly gained popularity in Chinese social media in recent years, with topics related to it garnering billions of views. This is not about laziness but rather a low-consumption way of survival forced upon young people by high living costs, low incomes, and intense competition.
Scholar Xu Xin from Renmin University of China pointed out the emergence of a hidden population segment that is “not working, not employed, not consuming, and not appearing in statistics,” a sign of true social fracture being the quiet exit of individuals from society.
Xiaoxue did not attempt to find a job again until 2025, but during the probation period, she earned a monthly salary of only about 1000 yuan. She shared an apartment with her classmates, with monthly rent of about 400 yuan, leaving little to no surplus after basic expenses. “Just managing to put food on the table,” she said. When it comes to marriage and family, she bluntly stated, “I can’t even support myself,” with no plans to marry or have children.
“Most of my classmates don’t even think about getting married,” she expressed helplessly, “With society going like this, it’s hard to say where the end is, there’s no hope in sight.”
Such a predicament is in line with macroeconomic data. Recent data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Communist Party of China shows that in 2024, the total number of registered marriages nationwide dropped to 6.106 million pairs, a decline of 20.5% year-on-year. With unstable employment and low incomes, more and more young people are actively giving up on marriage and childbearing.
In Beijing, post-2000 Xiao Yue opted for “leeching off” her parents. She told The Epoch Times, “Good jobs are hard to find, a decade of hard work just to deliver takeout,” with many peers simply giving up on trying, “not seeking a partner, not getting married, not having children, with no expectation for the future.”
In Guangzhou, post-2000 Chen Ling also found herself in a long period of unemployment. She said, in 2025, “I only worked for 2 months, unemployed for 10 months,” unable to find any work, leading her to lie flat at home.
Ms. Zhang from Wuhan talked about her post-2000 brother, who had graduated from college two to three years ago, but still hadn’t found a job. She remarked, “He studied automotive engineering, and Wuhan itself is an automotive city, but he still couldn’t find a job.” He is currently unemployed at home and sometimes goes out to deliver takeout. “Delivering takeout is just pure hard work,” Ms. Zhang mentioned, “He did it for a month, got sick, and his health deteriorated.”
For some young people, lying flat is just a temporary measure. Post-2000 Xiao Qiang chose to go abroad in 2025. He remarked that the mainland China’s “economy is really bad, there are no jobs to be found, a bunch of people are unemployed.”
He vividly described the scene he saw, “Walking on the streets, there are large areas of shops that are closed.” Even if one actively interviews for jobs, no one is willing to hire them. In his opinion, even if they barely get employed, it is just trading life for a few thousand yuan in income, “Some employers don’t even pay salaries on time.”
“If you stay in this society any longer, you’ll be ruined,” Xiao Qiang said, expressing that this mindset eventually led him to leave China.
The employment market in China is severe. Yuan Hongbing pointed out that China’s economy has entered an “irreversible downward trend.” The Wall Street Journal cited data, reporting that China is gradually becoming a “gig economy” country, with about 200 million people engaged in gig work such as delivery drivers and ride-hailing drivers, and this group is continually growing. Furthermore, data from Chinese research firm QuestMobile shows a rapid increase in the number of food delivery drivers in China, reaching 14 million in July 2025, with nearly a quarter being female.
American economist David Huang analyzed that China’s economy is showing a state of “warm outside, cold inside, high leverage, low confidence.” He stated, “Superficially, China is still within the ‘about 5% growth’ range, but this figure is mainly supported by exports and government-directed fixed asset investments; while in reality, the household and private sector have clearly entered a deleveraging and contraction phase.”
The loss of trust in the Chinese Communist governance has even spread to the younger “post-2010” generation. Qin Jian, a senior high school student in Beijing, told The Epoch Times, “Many classmates secretly climb the wall (bypass Internet censorship), and can understand many things,” having a clear understanding of reality, “on the surface, they support the Communist Party, but deep down, they know it’s falling apart.”
He admitted to being sick of politics classes, “Not willing to learn political stuff, it feels nauseating”; with no anticipation for the upcoming college entrance examination and future planning. They only wish to “casually attend a university and get by.”
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