Though China's economic recovery has begun to gain momentum, with growth rebounding to 4.5 percent in the first quarter after pandemic restrictions were scrapped early this year, youth unemployment has remained a persistent area of pain, according to reports.

Instead of providing job opportunities, the Chinese government is urging graduates to accept other menial jobs involving "manual labour" work. They are shifting the blame of soaring unemployment on jobless university graduates, accusing them of refusing to put aside their professional ambitions and take on manual labour, reports Tibet Press.

The Communist Youth League last month criticized young graduates for holding on to their professional aspirations, accusing them of refusing to "tighten screws in factories" and exhorting the current generation to "take off their suits, roll up their sleeves and go to the farmland".

Simultaneously, the propaganda machinery of the Chinese state is circulating fake stories on social media about people making a good amount of money in non-white collar jobs, reports Tibet Press.