With the ongoing stagnation of the Chinese economy, the unemployment rate, especially among young people, remains high. According to the latest official data, in July, the youth unemployment rate rose to 17.9%, a 3% increase from the previous month, marking a new high since September of last year and the highest in the same period for nearly three years.
On August 19, the National Bureau of Statistics of the Chinese Communist Party released the unemployment rate data for different age groups in July. Among them, the urban unemployment rate for the labor force aged 16-24, excluding students, reached 17.9%, a 3 percentage point increase from the previous month, setting a new high since September last year and surpassing the rates of 17.1% in 2024 and 17.8% in 2025.
The urban unemployment rate for the labor force aged 25-29, excluding students, was 7.2%, a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. Additionally, the urban unemployment rate for the labor force aged 30-59, excluding students, stood at 3.9%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.
In July, the national urban survey unemployment rate was 5.2%, up by 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. According to Xiong Yuan, chief economist of Guosheng Securities, this month-on-month increase slightly exceeds the seasonal pattern. From 2019 to 2025, the average month-on-month increase for July was 0.1 percentage points, indicating a marginal increase in employment pressure this July.
Critics have always questioned the accuracy of the Chinese Communist Party’s official data. On July 20, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that the average urban survey unemployment rate for the first half of the year was 5.2%. Even Li Daokui, known as the “economic guru” of the Chinese Communist Party, does not believe this data, as he believes the broad unemployment rate has reached 10.2%.
July is the period when college graduates enter the labor market in large numbers. In July of last year, the youth unemployment rate in China was 17.8%, which further rose to 18.9% in August, reaching the highest point in the past year.
The graduating class of 2026 from Chinese ordinary colleges and universities is expected to reach 12.7 million people, an increase of 480,000 from 2025. With the addition of previously unemployed graduates, returnees from overseas, and those who failed to find jobs after taking exams, the pressure during the summer job hunting season is significant.