Unemployment among China's youth jumped sharply to 17.1 percent in July, official data showed, the highest level this year, underscoring the deepening economic challenges facing the world's second-largest economy.
China currently faces major challenges from a number of issues, from rising unemployment among the youth generation, a property sector burdened with huge debts, and increasingly complex trade issues with the West.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who oversees economic policy, called on Friday (16/) for companies facing difficulties to be “listened to” and “their problems to be truly addressed,” according to the state news agency. Xinhua.
The unemployment rate among youth aged 16 to 24 released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) rose sharply from 13.2 percent in June.
The closely watched metric peaked at 21.3 percent in June 2023. However, authorities have since stopped publishing the data and changed their methodology to exclude students.
Nearly 12 million students graduated from universities in China in June, intensifying competition in an already tight job market that is thought to have contributed to a sharp spike in unemployment in July.
In May, President Xi Jinping stressed that tackling youth unemployment should be a “top priority.”
Disappointing Data
Based on the published data, there was an increase in unemployment for the 25 to 29 year old age group, reaching 6.5 percent in July from 6.4 percent in the previous month.
For the labor force as a whole, the unemployment rate was 5.2 percent.
However, the NBS figures only provide a partial picture of China's employment situation as the data only covers urban areas.
The newly released unemployment figures come after other economic data from Beijing showed a slowdown, including a drop in industrial production. That comes despite the government’s recent efforts to boost growth with a variety of measures.
Industrial production growth weakened in July, expanding just 5.1 percent—down from 5.3 percent in June and missing analysts' expectations. (ah/ft)
