Monthly updated data indicates one out of every seven young urban workers in China failed to find employment in August, including graduates from high schools, colleges, and universities.
China’s urban unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in August, while the rate for those aged 16-24 is three-times higher sitting at 15.3 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Wednesday.
Yet the official rate for the latter in August 2019—before the pandemic hit—was two percent lower.
Commentator Wen Xiaogang said the large volume of jobless young people flagged the inconsistency of Beijing’s claim on economic recovery beyond the impact of COVID-19.
The latest data show China’s factory output growth in August hit a 13-month low as the Delta variant surged in southeast China.
Observers also worried that the Chineses Communist Party’s crackdown on the off-campus tutoring industry left young people looking for jobs struggling even more.
In late July, China’s Ministry of Education officially banned for-profit tutoring on core school subjects as both young private tutors and graduates saw jobs vanishing. The authorities also barred the once-promising businesses from raising capital or going public.
Additionally, the August average weekly working hours decreased by 0.2 hours to 47.5 hours, regarding all employed workers in the nation’s enterprises, the data showed.
