Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu
The post claimed that unemployment among Chinese citizens aged 16-24 has reached 18%, while the rate for those aged 25-29 stands at 7.4%. It also highlighted a record 12.7 million college graduates entering the job market this year, alongside concerns that AI adoption could further reduce entry-level employment opportunities. Zoho founder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu has raised an alarm about the future of employment. Vembu argued that the traditional promise of education leading to secure, well-paying jobs is now breaking down, mainly in the face of automation and artificial intelligence. Reacting to a post shared on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) talking about the increasing youth unemployment in China, Vembu emphasised that the policymakers in India should take note of the challenges faced by the world’s second-largest economy. Vembu’s comments came in response to a widely shared post that described China’s youth employment situation as a potential generational challenge.
Around 70% of unemployed individuals in China’s 20-to-24 age group hold university degrees, highlighting a growing mismatch between educational outcomes and labour market opportunities, according to Vembu. That deal is breaking” China is the factory of the world, has impressive technology capabilities across a vast array of sectors and runs a $1.2 trillion merchandise trade surplus and yet is not able to create jobs for a big cohort of her college-educated youth. Approximately 70% of all unemployed individuals in the 20-to-24 age group hold university degrees in China.
In a post on X, Vembu cited China’s economic strength, noting that the country remains “the factory of the world,” possesses advanced technological capabilities across numerous sectors, and runs a merchandise trade surplus of roughly $1.2 trillion. Despite those strengths, he said China is struggling to generate enough jobs for a large section of its college-educated youth. He said modern education and economic systems have largely been designed to prepare young people for stable salaried employment, but those jobs are increasingly coming under pressure from automation and AI. “Our modern educational and economic system around the world trains young people for ‘steady paycheck’ jobs and those jobs are not just not growing, they are under serious challenge due to automation and AI,” Vembu wrote. We have to move away from that model,” he said.
The Zoho founder argued that the issue extends beyond China and reflects a broader global challenge. He added that the situation is likely to worsen rather than improve in the coming years. Vembu suggested that a dramatic increase in entrepreneurship and self-employment could be the answer. “The rise of the big industrial and corporate ‘steady paycheck’ job is a relatively recent phenomenon. “For decades, young Chinese were promised a simple deal: Study hard. Get a good job. Become richer than your parents. This problem is about to get worse, not better. What is the solution? Dramatic gains in entrepreneurship and self-employment. That has been the foundation of prosperity even in America all the way until the mid 20th century. Policymakers in India must pay heed. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
He pointed to the historical role of small businesses and self-employment in driving prosperity in the United States before the rise of large corporations and industrial employment.