China’s coronavirus recovery gathers steam, but young jobseekers face being left behind

Name: China GDP: economy grew by 4.9 per cent in third quarter of 2020
Uploaded: 2020-10-20T12:00:06.000Z
Duration: 1 min 47 s
Description: China GDP: economy grew by 4.9 per cent in third quarter of 2020

China’s monthly jobless rate for educated young people was up 4 percentage points in September on year, but 2.4 percentage points below August

Despite China’s continued economic recovery in the third quarter, many young graduates and rural migrant workers still face bleak job prospects

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

China was the first major economy to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, but young Chinese with university degrees are still facing grim job prospects. Photo: Xinhua

Sidney Leng

Published: 8:00pm, 20 Oct 2020Updated: 9:39am, 21 Oct 2020

China’s accelerated economic rebound in the third quarter has failed to significantly improve job prospects for the country’s young and educated, reflecting a weak link beneath headline growth figures that have been largely engineered by state spending and industrial production.

The monthly jobless rate for Chinese aged 20 to 24 with a college education was 4 percentage points higher in September than the same period a year ago, but 2.4 percentage points below August, Liu Aihua, a spokeswoman from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The NBS did not provide last month‘s unemployment rate, but in an earlier statement said it was 19.3 per cent at the end June – roughly one in five surveyed – and it had not fallen in July and August from a year earlier.

China was the first major economy to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic and gross domestic product growth accelerated to 4.9 per cent year on year in the third quarter, up from 3.2 per cent in the second quarter and a contraction of 6.8 per cent in the first three months.

01:47

China GDP: economy grew by 4.9 per cent in third quarter of 2020

But despite the broader economic recovery, young Chinese with university diplomas are still facing tough job prospects.