In the past few months, the China unemployment rate for youth has skyrocketed. The situation has become so bad that the government has seemingly stopped releasing data for it altogether. The government has stated that they have felt disappointed with the numbers they got for July. The National Bureau of Statistics did not include the unemployment numbers in their report.
Youth unemployment in China is defined using individuals of 16 to 24 years of age. This figure had seen a high of 21.3% in June. This time, they have simply not broken down unemployment by age. Therefore, we do not know the number of Chinese jobs among the youth.
The Bureau spoke out on the change, stating that it is withholding it for the time being due to changes in Chinese society and economy. It is currently trying to rethink how it calculates the China unemployment rate.
Chinese Economy: Slow Growth, Export Slump, Domestic Concerns
There are also concerns in the Chinese economy relating to slow growth in general. While coming out of the pandemic, they had initially enjoyed a sudden boom. However, this was expected after 2 years of little to no growth. This sudden burst of energy proved to be short-lasting. The effects of the pandemic, as well as long-standing issues, have come together to drag on the economy’s growth, impacting Chinese jobs. International markets have also had less demand for Chinese products after this time.
Year-on-year exports have plummeted in the country by 14.5% as of July, shortly after a 12.4% drop just in June. Furthermore, the survey confirms that factories have been reducing their production for four months now.
The problem is not only with external demand. Demand has remained low domestically as well. The import numbers have been poor, year-on-year dropping by 12.4% in the month of July. These imports have been declining every month for around a year now.
Government officials in the Chinese capital will likely have to respond to these issues soon to reduce any further damage. The hope is an improvement in Chinese job data.
