A student (right) asks questions at a job fair in Nanchang, East China's Jiangxi Province on October 23, 2021.About 10.76 million college graduates in China are estimated to enter the job market in 2022.Photo:cnsphoto

The rapid development of digital economy, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing has accelerated the digital transformation of many enterprises, which has in turn created a growing number of new jobs for young Chinese.

Tencent's ever-growing Weixin, also known as WeChat, ecosystem has created 46.18 million jobs at the end of 2021, including 13.41 million slots in video creation, livestreaming e-commerce and other fields related to WeChat, according to a report sent to the Global Times on Thursday. 

The report, which was released by the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security, shows 8.39 million jobs were related to research, development, and operations using WeChat's Mini Programs, with the remaining 24.38 million jobs created in the field of content creation for WeChat corporate accounts as well as private domain traffic and other related activities. 

WeChat has continually facilitated micro, small and medium enterprises to embrace digital transformation and leverage online traffic, with newly created jobs in private domain traffic up 41.5 percent in 2021 year-on-year. 

Data also shows that 44.7 percent of those working in WeChat-related developments have a monthly salary of more than 10,000 yuan ($1,485).

As various new forms of employment arise from the digital ecosystem, young people, who aspire to obtain jobs, are broadly embracing these digital opportunities, a development that has in part changed people's traditional concepts about landing a job.

The report shows that young people are the dominant work force employed by the WeChat ecosystem. For example, 72.5 percent of those working with WeChat Mini Programs are at or under 35 years old, an age group that accounts for 57.8 percent and 48.3 percent for Weixin's corporate accounts and channels respectively. 

The report said out of those taking jobs related to WeChat's corporate accounts, 65.7 percent were born in counties, townships and other rural areas, greatly assisting the college graduates coming from the largely less developed countryside.. 

China's employment market has seen signs of an upturn over the recent years, amid broader improvements in key economic indicators and the implementation of multiple pro-employment policies.

The country's surveyed urban unemployment rate fell to 5.9 percent in May from 6.1 percent in April, compared with the overall goal of keeping the rate at no more than 5.5 percent in 2022 which was laid out in the government's work report delivered to the National People's Congress in March.

Global Times