China’s economy continues to decline, with the job market deteriorating and unemployment rates steadily rising, especially among youth. The latest data shows that in July, the unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds in urban areas, excluding students, reached 17.8%, the highest since August 2024.
On August 19, the National Bureau of Statistics of the CCP released data on unemployment rates by age group, indicating that in July, the unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds, excluding students, stood at 17.8%, a 3.3% increase from June, and 0.7% higher than the same period in 2024, marking the second highest since the adjustment of statistical caliber.
The unemployment rate for 25-29 year olds, excluding students, rose by 0.2 percentage points to 6.9%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the same period last year; while the unemployment rate for 30-59 year olds, excluding students, decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.9%, remaining the same as last year.
Earlier on August 15, the statistics bureau announced that in July, the national urban survey unemployment rate and the survey unemployment rate of the 31 major cities both rose to 5.2%, also hitting a four-month high.
However, official CCP data often conceals unfavorable situations, and the actual data may be even worse.
On July 17, 2023, the CCP statistics bureau announced that the youth unemployment rate in June was 21.3%; on August 15, they announced the temporary suspension of the publication of youth unemployment and other related data starting from that month.
On January 17, 2024, the bureau adjusted the statistical caliber, stating that the national urban survey unemployment rate in December 2023 was 5.1%. The unemployment rates for 16-24 year olds, 25-29 year olds, and 30-59 year olds, excluding students, were 14.9%, 6.1%, and 3.9%, respectively.
This is the first time since August 2023, when the CCP stopped publishing youth unemployment rate data under the pretext of further “optimizing” labor force survey statistics, that they have publicly released the unemployment rate data for young people aged 16 to 24.
Beijing University associate professor Zhang Dandan previously stated that if approximately 16 million non-working young people, such as “lying flat” and relying on their parents, are considered unemployed, the actual youth unemployment rate in March 2023 could have been as high as 46.5%, far exceeding the officially reported 19.7%.