China’s youth unemployment hits record high amid slowing growth

The youth unemployment rate in China reached its highest level since new record-keeping systems were introduced last December, amid an economic slowdown and companies' reluctance to hire new graduates due to the costs of labor turnover.

The unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 and not in education reached 18.8% in August, up from 17.1% in July and 13.2% in June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) showed.

Additionally, the urban unemployment rate across all age groups rose to 5.3% in August, following a previous increase to 5.2% in July.

In the second half of 2023, China stopped releasing youth unemployment data and reassessed its calculation methods to exclude those still in school.

Dan Wang, chief economist at HSBC, noted to CNBC that it is increasingly difficult for young people to find high-paying jobs as they once did, primarily due to the contraction of the services sector over the past three years, which typically employed many recent graduates, particularly in real estate, finance, and information technology.