Analysts continue to call for more aggressive stimulus measures to invigorate the job market, after employees saw salaries suffer their biggest quarterly decline in years across dozens of major Chinese cities.
Lack of detail on a crucial economic policy meeting, along with other messaging that indicates emphasis on political cohesion, suggests growth and recovery are still not top of mind for China’s leadership.
China’s jobless rate for 16 to 24 age group stood at 14.9 per cent in December 2023, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, with the release of the data having been suspended in July.
A Post review of annual reports by Chinese universities offers insight into the current state of youth joblessness as official figures resume, and 2024 looks to be rife with challenges.
For the first time in decades, the share of China’s workforce employed in raw materials industries has gone up – a consequence of a weak job market and a return of rural migrants to their homes.
Though China’s youth are more educated than any generation, a saturated job market has seen more turn away from the previously traditional path of graduate school and consider alternative avenues.
China’s official unemployment rate has remained stable over the past few months, but suspended production and long unpaid leave has been reported in some manufacturing sectors.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that starting from this month —July — it would no longer be releasing age-group-specific breakdowns of unemployment data as it reconsiders how it measures data.
State media is heralding the dangers of universities forcing graduates to fabricate employment records or sign ‘flexible’ employment contracts to fudge jobs data, and Beijing intends to hold people accountable.
Unemployment among China’s youth rose further in July, while gross domestic product data indicated a continued uneven post-pandemic recovery and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a high-profile visit.