SHANGHAI, Jan 18 Reuters The night before China39;s civil service exam, Melody Zhang anxiously paced up and down the corridor of her dormitory, rehearsing her answers. Only when she got back to her room did she realise she had been crying the whole time.

Zhang was hoping to start a career in state propaganda after more than 100 unsuccessful job applications in the media industry. With a record 2.6 million people going for 39,600 government jobs amid a youth unemployment crisis, she didn39;t get through.

We were born in the wrong era, said the 24yearold graduate from China39;s top Renmin University.

No one cares about their dreams and ambitions anymore in an economic downturn. The endless jobhunting is a torture.

A crisis of confidence in the economy is deterring consumers from spending and businesses from hiring and investing, in what could become a selffeeding mechanism that erodes China39;s longterm economic potential.

China grew 5.2 last year, more than most major economies. But for the unemployed graduates, the property owners who feel poorer as their flats are losing value, and the workers earning less than the year before, the world39;s secondlargest economy feels like it39;s shrinking.

Zhu Tian, economics professor at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, says the textbook definition of a recession two consecutive quarters of economic contraction should not apply to a developing country investing roughly 40 of its output annually, twice…