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China jobs: how young graduates and universities are really coping with elevated unemployment
- A Post review of two dozen annual reports by Chinese universities offers insight into the current state of youth joblessness as official figures resume after nearly a half year
- Several factors seen weighing on the ability of young adults to find work in China this year, including advances in AI and persistent private-sector woes
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With a record 11.79 million students expected to graduate from Chinese universities this year, where the nation’s army of young jobseekers is enlisting their services has become an outsized concern at a time when the nation’s post-pandemic recovery is slow and jobs remain scarce.
Youth unemployment surged to new heights in the first half of 2023. Officially, surveys showed that more than one in five of those aged 16-24 in China were deemed unemployed from April to June. Then suddenly, authorities decided a recalibration was in order and chose not to release the monthly rate from July to November.
That changed on Wednesday when authorities released a revised youth-unemployment rate for December – 14.9 per cent – a figure that omits those enrolled in school.
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Meanwhile, year-end reports on graduate destinations recently issued by higher-education institutions offer a glimpse into how graduates are coping.
The Post has reviewed reports from 24 universities across the country and spotted some of the latest trends.
Overall, the employment rate appears to have improved marginally from last year, but it still lagged well behind pre-pandemic levels. This came as the Ministry of Education also vowed to crack down on universities found to be submitting fake data to burnish their reputations.
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