China's inability to cope with increasing youth unemployment amid a growing number of graduates and shrinking number of jobs could create serious problems in the second-largest economy in the world.
The unemployment figure for people ages 16 to 24 years old rose from 15.3% in 2022 to a staggering 21.3% in June, marking a 25% jump in the figure, according to data from China – a record high that prompted Beijing to stop releasing further figures.
Overall unemployment in China hit 5.3% in July, down from a high of 6.1% earlier in the year, according to The Wall Street Journal. That rate is a little higher than the pre-pandemic rate, reported as 4.6% by the World Bank. China reported an overall unemployment rate of 4.9% in 2022. A job fair in Dongpo District, Meishan City, Sichuan Province, Southwest China, on June 18, 2023. Picture: Getty
"While the output gap in the services sector narrowed materially in the first quarter of this year, the related increase in demand for workers probably won’t be enough to offset a pending flood of graduates," the report argued. Ho-Fung Hung, a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University, noted in an op-ed in the New York Times that Chinese President Xi Jinping had repeatedly tried to push urban youth out to the countryside, but farmable land continues to decrease.
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