bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Orange Wang

Danielle Popov

China’s youth unemployment surged to 17.1 per cent in July, the highest level in the eight months since the National Bureau of Statistics adopted a new method of counting.
The jobless rate for 16- to 24-year-olds – excluding students – was up from 13.2 per cent a month earlier and ended three months of declines, according to NBS data released on Friday.
Beijing introduced the revised method for December after suspending the release of youth unemployment data from July.
Under the previous approach, the jobless rate for the 16-24 age group, including students, peaked at 21.3 per cent in June.
Student numbers were then stripped out of the calculation, a change that the NBS said was to “more accurately” reflect that job-hunting was not a priority for students in China.
The rate for December was 14.9 per cent.


The rise in unemployment among young jobseekers comes as a record 11.79 million tertiary graduates enter the labour market of the world’s second-largest economy.
Many fresh graduates have had to scale back salary expectations by about a third as the economy has struggled to gather momentum, according to analysts.
One day before the youth jobless reading, the NBS reported that the country’s overall unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent, up for the first time since February.
“The employment situation has remained generally stable so far this year,” NBS spokeswoman Liu Aihua said.
“But we should also see at the same time that pressure … still exists. The structural contradiction of difficulties in both job seeking and recruitment is still prominent.”
China’s ruling elites have put more emphasis on dealing with youth joblessness this year, in part because of the risks it poses to social stability as well as the pressure lower incomes would put on plans for consumer spending to lead the way to a sustainable recovery.
At a meeting of the State Council, the country’s cabinet, on Friday, Premier Li Qiang called for more efforts to “stabilise employment for key groups”.
The Communist Party’s Politburo, the main decision-making body in China, had a similar message two weeks earlier, saying priority should be given to university graduates looking for jobs.


And last month the party’s Central Committee said it would “improve the system of employment support for key groups such as college graduates, rural migrant workers and ex-service members”.
Since the release of the December data, the Chinese authorities have split the 25-59 age group into two parts – 25-29 and 30-59 – and applied the new statistical method to both.
The jobless rate for the 25-29 age group, also excluding students, was 6.5 per cent in July, up by 0.1 percentage point from June, inching back up after three consecutive months of decline.
The rate for the 30-59 age group was 3.9 per cent, just down from 4 per cent reported in June.


Postgraduate degrees in China: golden tickets to employment or overrated qualifications?

Alibaba bolsters consumer AI team with expert Steven Hoi amid race for top tech talent

DeepSeek attracts China’s young jobseekers as AI firm ramps up recruitment

How China’s government is supercharging the rise of humanoid robots

China jobs

Youth unemployment on the rise in China as more graduates enter the labour market

Competition for jobs is fierce among China’s younger generation.
Photo: Xinhua

China’s youth, anxious over job market, trust in science to secure their future

More of China’s university students are entering the sciences to secure their futures in a tense job market. Photo: Xinhua

Can China’s development-based social contract withstand unemployment pressures?

A bronze statue of China’s former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who established development as the party’s core priority in a 1992 speech. Photo: Shutterstock


Unemployment spike in Shenzhen: ‘blip’ or a chip at China’s economic might?

One analyst called the unemployment rise a “temporary blip” in Shenzhen’s job situation. Photo: Getty Images

China jobs: anxious young jobseekers ‘stuck in a rat race’, forced to ‘lie flat’ as unemployment remains a headache for Beijing

In March, the adjusted unemployment rate for the 16 to 24 age group in China remained at an elevated 15.3 per cent. Photo: AFP

In March, the adjusted unemployment rate for the 16 to 24 age group in China remained at an elevated 15.3 per cent. Photo: Xinhua

News

China

Economy

China Economy

Joblessness among 16- to 24-year-olds reaches a high under revised calculation system that excludes students


Joblessness among 16- to 24-year-olds reaches a high under revised calculation system that excludes students.
