Precarity Without Protest: The Muted Political Consequences of College-Graduate Employment Hardship in China

China’s rapid expansion of higher education in recent decades has produced an unprecedented number of college graduates. This expansion has outpaced the development of the high-skilled labor market, resulting in elevated levels of unemployment and underemployment among young graduates. While these trends are often viewed as potential sources of political instability, little empirical research has explored the actual political consequences. This article addresses this by combining city-level data on youth employment and protest frequencies with in-depth interviews of unemployed and underemployed college graduates. Contrary to conventional expectations, we find that employment precarity among the graduates does not lead to increased protest activity. Interview-based research explains this political quiescence and highlights a confluence of institutional constraints, economic pressures, and social-psychological strains that inhibit mobilization. Rather than voicing their grievances collectively, many graduates respond to employment precarity through passive withdrawal and individualized coping strategies. What emerges is a generation of educated youth who are not politically disengaged out of apathy but are muted by a system that renders protest prohibitively costly and conformity essential for economic survival.