Nothing better than an innovation fair to understand how artificial intelligence, supported by the Chinese government itself, will deal the final blow to the shaky job market. Forget the assembly lines of the world‘s factory with workers replaced by robots, as the erosion of once-safe places is spreading visibly, China’s demographics are declining – in 2023 the first historic decline, at this rate in 45 years the population will halve – while the intersection of supply and demand is clearly dystopian.
La start up
Cooneo, Kunyu technologies in English, is a start-up based in Shenzhen, just opposite Macao and Hong Kong, which has earned the place of honor at Beyond Expo for the ductility of applications in the field of robotics.
On Weibo, Cooneo gadgets are sponsored as “Father’s Day gifts” (he rests on the deck chair, the machine takes care of the garden) but, be careful: the reality is that Cooneo has churned out super-efficient robots capable of replacing dozens and dozens of warehouse workers and coordinators and managers of the e-commerce supply chain like Ikea or Amazon, in one fell swoop. Pouf! Gone, because the Cooneo market is 45% local, so the Chinese themselves will suffer, to varying degrees. Cannibalized.
Cooneo’s R&D task force is extraordinary but miniature, about twenty young researchers of the highest level, talents in unbridled competition in developing the newest invention, to save time and money and, of course, jobs.
The high youth unemployment
In China youth unemployment is now at unsustainable levels for a society in which until a few decades ago the concepts of corporate bankruptcy, planned price discounts and even lack of work were practically unknown. But even the employee segment must be on guard, here at Beyond there are those who have developed a four-wheeled contraption that performs office work better than human beings. The country is struggling to find jobs in the right places and, aware of the problem, the government released a series of policies in April designed to stimulate the labor market, including subsidies for companies that take on unemployed graduates. Desk jobs are the shortcut, the government wants state-owned enterprises to hire one million trainees in 2023 and has set a target of 12 million new jobs, one more than 2022. The selection of the best talent has become terrible, the gaokao, the maturity test capable of placing you in a good university «then the safe job arrives», no longer works.