China’s youth unemployment rate rose to its highest level in 11 months in July, as a record number of graduates entered an already shaky labour market.
The urban jobless rate for the 16-24 age group, excluding students, rose to 17.8 per cent last month from 14.5 per cent in June, putting an end to four straight months of decline and marking the metric’s highest level since last August, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
The figures come as a record 12.2 million university students graduate this summer, with a majority of them joining a sizeable applicant pool that has had trouble finding open positions that meet their education and skill levels.
In recent months, Beijing has launched a string of initiatives to aid graduates and other young people as they seek employment.
For instance, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security is running a campaign from July to December to support jobless youth and college graduates with services such as career guidance sessions, referrals, and training opportunities.
But unemployment among this age cohort remains high, fuelled by a mismatch between jobs and expectations in a challenging economic environment where domestic demand has yet to make up for shortfalls in traditional growth sectors like real estate.
“The market is quite rough,” said He Yue, a computer science graduate currently based in Beijing. After receiving her diploma from a university in Chongqing, she has spent over two months looking for a suitable job.
After sending in dozens of applications for media operations roles in the national capital – a field where she has prior experience – He has only received one offer, which failed to meet her salary expectations of 6,000 yuan (US$835) a month.
“The offer was only for a base pay of 4,000 to 5,000 yuan. After deducting living expenses such as rent, transport, and meals, I’ll be left with around 1,500 yuan or less,” she said.
The role also required frequent overtime, which she said she was reluctant to take on at that wage level.
Unlike many of her friends who are planning to apply for postgraduate programmes, He said she would continue her job search, possibly shifting focus to positions in Hangzhou, China’s rising tech hub on the east coast.
Nearly 3.9 million people signed up for the postgraduate entrance exam this year, as many young Chinese are pursuing master’s degrees to gain a competitive edge amid cutthroat competition for entry-level positions.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for those aged 25 to 29, also excluding students, stood at 6.9 per cent in July, up from 6.7 per cent in June.
China’s overall urban jobless rate edged up to 5.2 per cent in July, after holding at 5 per cent for the two months prior.