China’s youth unemployment hits 11-month high as graduates join job hunt

China’s youth unemployment rate rose to its highest level in 11 months in July, as a record number of graduates enter an already shaky labour market.

The urban jobless rate for the 16-24 age group, excluding students, rose to 17.8 per cent last month from 14.5 per cent in June, putting an end to four straight months of decline and marking the metric’s highest level since last August, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

The figures come as a record 12.2 million university students graduate this summer, with a majority of them joining a sizeable applicant pool that has had trouble finding open positions that meet their education and skill levels.

In recent months, Beijing has launched a string of initiatives to aid graduates and other young people as they seek employment.

For instance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is running a campaign from July to December to support jobless youth and college graduates with services such as career guidance sessions, referrals and training opportunities.

But unemployment among this age cohort remains high, fuelled by a mismatch between jobs and expectations in a challenging economic environment where domestic demand has yet to make up for shortfalls in traditional growth sectors like real estate.

“The market is quite rough,” said He Yue, a computer science graduate currently based in Beijing. After receiving her diploma from a university in Chongqing, she has spent over two months looking for a suitable job.

South China Morning Post