Unemployment among young people aged 16 to 24 has once again broken a record in China. The unemployment rate among those in this age group, excluding students, rose to 18.8% in August, surpassing the previous record of 17.1% recorded in July.
The figures, released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, are bad news for the world’s second-largest economy. The lack of vacancies for younger people signals that jobs are not being created, that is, the economy is not growing at the necessary speed to guarantee employment for new professionals.
“The technological advancement of Chinese industries has created a demand for qualified professionals, which means that the time that they must study for is necessarily longer,” says Alexandre Pires, professor of international relations and economics at Ibmec SP. In the country, the unemployment rate among workers aged 25 to 29 is 6.9%.
Economic measures
To try to reverse the situation and get the economy back to high growth rates, the government of President Xi Jinping announced a group of economic measures at the end of September. China has been experiencing a slowdown since 2010. “The country has suffered from the tariff barriers imposed by many nations to contain the advance of Chinese products,” says Pires.
The aim of the measures is to boost consumption and revitalize the real estate sector, which has faced difficulties since the covid-19 pandemic, reducing the cost of bank loans to stimulate credit for companies and facilitate the purchase of real estate.
Another important change was the creation of a fund of 500 billion yuan (around 390 billion reais) to stabilize the financial market. The intention is for these measures to make the country grow 5% in 2024.
