Hannah Miao

And according to this case study that was published by the court, he had worked at this tech company for more than a decade.

And then last year, his company started using AI to do his job instead.

It tried to move him to a different role with a 40% pay cut.

He refused and he was fired.

And after that, he challenged his employer in arbitration, which turned into a lawsuit.

And ultimately, the Hangzhou court ruled in his favor and the company was forced to pay this man a sum of money for wrongful termination.

That's right.

We're hearing that companies in China are less willing than before to hire early career, inexperienced workers.

This is really hitting that entry-level job market, similar to dynamics that we've seen happen in the U.S.,

We spoke to a startup founder in Guangzhou who said he created several AI agents earlier this year to do things like research, market research, user analysis, and scheduling.

And these are the exact sorts of roles that you might hire fresh college graduates for.

And he is using these agents instead of hiring.

China has seen elevated youth unemployment for the last several years now.

And it's manifested in these sorts of movements like, quote, lying flat, which is something similar to the quiet quitting trend that we saw in the U.S.

So this is an area that China has already been struggling with.

And AI appears to just be compounding this challenge for Beijing.

We just received China's export data for March, which showed a 2.5% growth from the year earlier.

And that was down sharply from a 22% increase for January and February.

So this could be an early sign that the war in Iran is weighing on global demand, which could really threaten a key growth driver for China's economy, exports.

That's right.