Record-breaking figures for joblessness among young workers weaken the Chinese economy's near- and long-term prospects.
Young job seekers looking at employment information at a job fair in Hangzhou, China. Credit: ChinaImages via Depositphotos
This month, China released official statistics showing that its unemployment rate for young people (16-24 years old) reached a record high of 20.4 percent in April. Worse, the news comes just one month before another 11.6 million students will graduate from college and vocational schools and enter the job market.
True, the lockdowns under the government’s zero-COVID policy were much more draconian and economically damaging than other countries’ containment policies, and they were enforced for more than a year longer in most cases. So, it is not surprising that China’s economic recovery has lagged others. For comparison, the US youth unemployment rate hit 14.85% at its pandemic peak in 2020, before declining to 9.57 percent in 2021, and to 6.5 percent today.
But while most of China’s pandemic-related obstacles to employment have been lifted, the fundamental conditions for reducing China’s youth unemployment are not i
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