Shenzhen Residents Say ‘City of Opportunity’ Leaves Young Job Seekers Disillusioned

Economic slowdown, misleading job listings, and rising costs are eroding Shenzhen’s promise of upward mobility for a new generation.

A worker checks a product on the production line for an e-cigarette company, in Shenzhen, China, on Sept. 25, 2019. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

For years, Shenzhen has been touted in the Chinese communist regime’s official narratives as a fast-growing metropolis next to Hong Kong where ambitious young people could find high-paying jobs and a path to upward mobility. For many job seekers arriving today, that promise is proving elusive.

The city, once a flagship of China’s economic rise during the 1980s, has been hit hard by the aftereffects of the regime’s draconian COVID-19 pandemic controls. The property sector has weakened, consumer spending has slowed, and job opportunities have declined alongside them.