On June 17, China's State Council released the "15th Five-Year Plan for Implementing the Employment-First Strategy" (FYP), intended to supplement the 15th FYP for economic development, released in March and the key guiding document for China's economic policy from 2026-2030. The employment FYP lays out both job market challenges and Beijing's goals for managing a massive and quickly aging working population, estimated by China's National Bureau of Statistics to number 851 million people in 2025, down 0.8% from 2024. It places a particular emphasis on wielding new technologies, like AI, to boost employment while minimizing job destruction. The FYP was published as Beijing seeks to revive consumption levels following the COVID-19 pandemic, alleviate societal discontent over growing wage inequality and seemingly shrinking job opportunities and deter youth protests. On this latter point, college students disgruntled by poor economic conditions have been the key drivers of some of China's largest protest...
