China’s youth-unemployment pressure eases as index falls for third straight month
The youth-unemployment rate fell to 16.1 per cent in November, its third consecutive monthly decline, according to Chinese government data
China’s youth-unemployment pressure showed signs of easing in November as rates declined for the third consecutive month, according to official data. But job market uncertainty is still driving graduates to chase stable public-sector jobs.
The unemployment rate for the 16-24 age group, excluding students, was 16.1 per cent last month, down from 17.1 per cent in October, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for the 25-29 age group, excluding college students, also fell slightly to 6.7 per cent last month, compared with 6.8 per cent in October.
China’s youth-unemployment rate has now posted three consecutive monthly declines since the index shot up to 18.8 per cent in August, when a bumper class of fresh graduates entered the job market.
That August peak was the highest youth-unemployment level China had recorded since the government changed the way it measured the rate last year.
China temporarily stopped publishing its youth-unemployment data in August 2023, after recording a record-high rate of 21.3 per cent two months earlier. It then rejigged its calculation method to exclude students from the data.
