Chief Secretary Advises Youth to Wash Dishes

Matthew Cheung says young people should lower their job expectations

Senior government officials think they understand the lives of average Hongkongers, but they really do live in an ivory tower. Career bureaucrats are the worst people to dispense career advice to the next generation.

At a virtual meeting held by the Youth Development Commission yesterday, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung tried to assuage young people's fears about their job prospects in the current economic climate.

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in Hong Kong's unemployment rate at 6.1 percent, but for young people aged 15-29 it is as high as 22.1 percent, while for those aged 20-24 it is 16.2 percent.

Unemployment among young people is as high as 22 percent

He said the government will hire 10,000 civil servants this year, with most of them being junior positions, and that there were 5,000 internships with the government and HK$6 billion for youth entrepreneurship and employment.

Given that younger cohorts of the civil service now have to swear allegiance to the SAR and uphold the Basic Law, and will probably have their social media accounts carefully scrutinized for their political leanings, not many of them may be eligible for these posts.

And how can one even start a business without any previous work experience? Isn't that even more daunting and riskier than finding a job?

During the meeting, one young woman named Chloe introduced herself as a recent history graduate at Chinese University. She said she sent out some 70 CVs but didn't get much of a response, or the position that was previously advertised was not available because companies were cutting costs.

Would a university graduate like to get a job washing dishes?

Cheung replied he didn't think it would be harder for someone with a liberal arts degree to find a job, and that the most important thing employers were looking for was the right attitude.

"You should lower your expectations," he said. "Dish washing is also work experience. So is sweeping the floor."

How is that advice even aspirational?

When this quote was circulated on Twitter, Cheung got a virtual drubbing. Many tweeted that there were fewer dishes to wash these days because more people were ordering takeaway because of the dining ban in the evenings.

Others criticized him for dismissing young people's valid concerns about job prospects, and instead frames it as their own fault that their expectations are too high.

It just goes to show how the government perceives the next generation of Hong Kong, and doesn't give them any hope except to literally start from the bottom despite working hard to get a tertiary education.