China Announces Youth Unemployment Rate Excluding Current Students... Drops Sharply from 21% to 14% in Half a Year

Resumption of Unemployment Rate Announcement After Half a Year
Excluding Enrolled Students... Only Job Seekers Targeted
"Accurate Reflection of Reality... Helpful for Policy"

China has resumed publishing youth unemployment rates, which had been suspended since July last year. The figure, which exceeded 20% at the end of the first half of the year, dropped sharply to the 14% range within six months after excluding students from the survey target.

On the 17th, the National Bureau of Statistics of China announced that the youth (ages 16-24) unemployment rate for last year was 14.9%. The last time China released youth unemployment data was in June last year, when it recorded 21.3%, the highest since the 2018 survey. Since then, the National Bureau of Statistics did not publish related figures from July to November, citing adjustments to the calculation method.

[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

By age group, the unemployment rates were 14.9% for ages 16-24, 6.1% for ages 25-29, and 3.9% for ages 30-59. The newly released figures were calculated only for job seekers excluding middle school, high school, and university students. Starting this month, the National Bureau of Statistics also announced it will calculate and publish youth unemployment rates monthly using the adjusted method.

Kang Yi, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a briefing that regarding the youth unemployment calculation method, "Including students in the survey mixes youths looking for part-time jobs with those seeking employment after graduation, which does not accurately reflect reality." He emphasized, "This adjustment allows us to conduct field surveys based on international standards, experiences, and practices of various countries, and to carefully organize the survey content to more accurately reflect employment and unemployment conditions." He added, "It will also help provide more accurate employment services to the youth and assist in establishing effective and targeted employment policies."

As of the end of December, China's urban surveyed unemployment rate was 5.1%, and the average urban surveyed unemployment rate for last year was 5.2%, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous year. The unemployment rate in 31 major cities was recorded at 5.0%, and the average weekly working hours for workers was 49 hours.

The working hours increased by 0.1 hours compared to November, marking the highest since related statistics began in 2017. Caixin interpreted this as "reflecting a greater tendency for companies to extend the working hours of existing employees rather than hiring new staff."