Eli Friedman is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of International and Comparative Labor at Cornell University’s ILR School. His most recent book is The Urbanization of People: The Politics of Development, Labor Markets, and Schooling in the Chinese City.
Last Updated: June 17, 2022
Notes from ChinaFile
08.17.23
What’s Behind the Youth Unemployment Statistics Beijing Just Decided to Stop Publishing?
This week, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced it would cease collecting data on youth unemployment. The news came after nearly a decade of poor job prospects for Chinese people ages 16-24, often reported on by international media as...
Conversation
06.16.22
China’s Record Urban Youth Unemployment
China has recorded its highest level of unemployment among urban youth since the country began tracking it in 2018. In March, 16 percent of Chinese city-dwellers aged 16 to 24 were unemployed, compared to 13.6 percent a year earlier. In May, that...
Conversation
11.27.18
How to Be a Chinese Scientist without Being China’s Scientist
As trade tensions between the United States and China worsen, a new technological cold war looms, casting its shadow over American universities and research institutions. How should individual scientists of Chinese origin decide whether to accept a...
Conversation
05.18.18
Does China Have a Jobs Problem?
In a surprise Sunday tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump said he supported helping the phone-maker ZTE, a Chinese tech giant which has been one of the hardest hit from U.S.-China trade tensions. “Too many jobs in China lost,” he wrote. Though Trump...