China yesterday said its youth unemployment rate hit a record high last month since publication resumed under a revised calculation last year, adding to a string of gloomy economic data.
The government’s jobless rate for people aged 16 to 24 had soared to more than 21 percent in June 2023, after which the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) paused its monthly publication.
The rate dropped by more than 6 percentage points when figures resumed for December of that year — although derived from a new methodology that excluded students.
Photo: AFP
The number has fluctuated over the past year as Beijing sought to breathe new life into a struggling economy that has amplified anxieties in the labor market.
Official NBS data released yesterday showed that the youth unemployment rate reached 18.9 percent last month — the highest level since the change.
The increase marks the latest development in a streak of disappointing figures showing strain on the world’s second-largest economy.
Factory output and retail sales rose last month at their slowest pace in about a year, authorities said earlier this week.
NBS chief economist Fu Linghui (傅令輝) on Monday acknowledged “weak” demand in the domestic economy, saying that “some enterprises are facing operational difficulties.”
The intensified headwinds come as Beijing confronts a multisided battle to ensure stable growth.
A years-long debt crisis in the property sector, persistent sluggishness in domestic spending and heightened trade tensions with Washington are among the thorny issues facing Chinese leaders.
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