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China Faces Continued Youth Employment Pressures Despite Job Creation Goals

Beijing recently released a government work report, setting a goal of creating over 12 million new urban jobs this year. The report said that China currently has an urban unemployment rate of around 5.5%. The report proposed policies to stabilize employment and increase incomes.

China will have over 11.7 million college graduates this year, another record high, posing significant challenges to the overall youth job market. Zhang Chenggang, a scholar at the Capital University of Economics and Trade, said that college graduate employment remains challenging. He believes new areas for youth entrepreneurship and more effective paths for youth employment need to be explored. He noted issues including slow wage growth, workers exiting the labor market, and prolonged working hours for employees under competitive pressures (which reflects insufficient vitality in the job market).

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), March 5, 2024
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202403050298.aspx