China's youth unemployment remains high, exceeding 17%

By Emre Aytekin

BEIJING (AA) — Youth unemployment in China remained high in October compared to overall joblessness in the country.

Unemployment among young people aged 16-24 declined from 17.6% in September to 17.1% in October, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NIB) revealed on Monday.

In the 25-29 age group, the jobless rate was at 6.8%, up slightly from 6.7% in September.

While the overall unemployment rate in cities was around 5%, youth unemployment has been hovering above 17% for the last four months.

The NIB had stopped disclosing unemployment data by age groups after unemployment in the 16-24 age group reached a record high of 21.3% in July 2023.

Later in December 2023, it adopted a new calculation method that excludes high school and university students.

The youth unemployment rate reached 18.8% in August, the highest level in the period when the new calculation method was used.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul