Editorial | High unemployment rate for nation’s youth sounds a warning
Official employment statistics for August show nearly one in five of people aged 16-24 were jobless, after revision that excluded college students from the figures
An increasing number of fresh graduates are struggling to find work amid China’s economic downturn.
Examples abound of young people reining in career and salary expectations as a result.
One that has gone viral online is that of a 24-year-old physics graduate whom a high school says it plans to hire as a janitor.
Their plight is reflected in the official employment statistics for August, which show the jobless rate for the 16-24 age group rose to 18.8 per cent, or nearly one in five.
That excludes college students, who were counted among the jobless until July last year, when the figure peaked at 21.3 per cent.
The authorities then suspended regular youth unemployment reports pending revision of the methodology, which ultimately resulted in college students being excluded.