As China’s youth-unemployment rate dips, can policy support keep the ball rolling?
Against the backdrop of ‘rotten-tail kids’ and a newly announced ‘1131’ service to help find young people jobs, latest jobs data for September offers glimmer of hope
The youth-unemployment rate in China’s urban areas edged down last month but persisted at a troublesome level as job opportunities remained elusive for many young people amid an economic slowdown.
The September jobless rate for the 16-24 age group, excluding students, dipped to 17.6 per cent – or roughly one out of every six in the target group – from August’s level of 18.8 per cent, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
It marked the third consecutive month that the indicator surpassed 17 per cent. There had been a gradual improvement from March to June, when the rate fell to 13.2 per cent.
Beijing opted not to release the rate for the months of July to November last year after it had climbed to an all-time high of 21.3 per cent. When the data set’s release resumed with December’s rate, authorities revealed that they had taken enrolled students out of the unemployment equation, bringing the rate down to 14.9 per cent.
China has reported a record-high 11.79 million college graduates this year, most of whom entered the job market this summer.
That includes Cai Xinyuan, a 24-year-old who completed her master’s degree in translation studies and is now based in Beijing.
“At the start [of my job search], I told myself that I would only look at jobs that paid above a certain amount,” she said on Tuesday. “But once I started looking, I realised how difficult it was to find a job that matched my [salary] expectations. It’s good enough just to get an offer.”
And on Monday, she received that offer – her first. After sending out roughly 100 applications, she has accepted a marketing position.
Her peers, she lamented, have had less luck.