The Chinese government said Tuesday it had instead stopped releasing information as the youth unemployment rate is expected to rise for a seventh straight month.
The urban unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds hit a record high of 21.3% in June and has been rising every month this year. It was widely expected by economists to rise further last month.
The decision to remove the widely watched report further exacerbates concerns expressed by investors and executives who say the government’s increasingly tight controls on information are making it difficult to do business in China. there is a possibility.
At a press conference, National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Fu Linghui said the government would stop compiling public employment information “targeted at young people and other age groups”. She said the surveys government researchers use to collect data “need to be further improved and optimized.”
China’s youth unemployment rate has doubled over the past four years, a period of economic instability caused by the “zero-corona” policy imposed by the Chinese government, which has made companies cautious about hiring, leaving many students out of work. Education was interrupted and it became difficult to participate in internships. It often led to job offers.
The announcement garnered more than 140 million views within hours on Chinese social media site Weibo. Many people commented online, some quipping that the government had suspended the report to try to cover up negative information. Some said they believed citizens had a right to information.
One person wrote, “To be clear, the current data looks very bad, so don’t look at it now.” Another opined, “This is the only policy that really works at the moment to deal with high youth unemployment.”
Young people struggling to find jobs is another sign of concern for China’s economy, the second largest in the world. Seven months after the government abruptly ended its “zero-corona” push, the economy remains plagued by declining exports, deteriorating consumer confidence, and a dangerous situation known as deflation and chronic price declines. is sluggish.
China released several other economic reports as scheduled on Tuesday. Many were pessimistic as July’s growth in retail sales and industrial production (a measure of output from China’s factories, mines and power plants) were weaker than expected. Investment in property development fell 8.5% in the first seven months of the year.
Earlier Tuesday, the People’s Bank of China made a series of moves to push key interest rates to new lows. China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, is expected next week to cut benchmark lending rates that determine mortgage and business lending rates. The move is intended to encourage banks to lend more, but analysts say China’s economic problems are deep-rooted and require more than a rate cut to revive economic activity.
Youth unemployment data isn’t the first economic report Chinese authorities have suspended this year. This spring, the National Bureau of Statistics stopped releasing monthly readings of the Consumer Confidence Index, which began 33 years ago.
Previous research has shown that consumer confidence plummeted in 2022 as Shanghai, China’s most populous city, went into a two-month lockdown. Confidence barely started to recover in the early months of the year, even after Beijing lifted nationwide lockdowns in early December.
China’s policy makers have boosted confidence and encouraged youth employment by providing subsidies to encourage private and state-owned enterprises to expand their employment, and putting pressure on universities to help graduates find jobs. We have introduced measures to promote
However, the economic response has been slow. China’s private sector, which supports 80% of China’s urban employment, has been hit particularly hard by lockdowns and mass inspections that have marked “zero coronavirus.”
In addition to the damage done to the job market during the pandemic, the government has cracked down on the country’s tech, real estate and education industries, where educated Chinese youth flocked to seek jobs. The regulatory measures have resulted in hundreds of thousands of job cuts and made companies and investors more cautious about expanding their businesses. Hiring is usually difficult when companies are vigilant.
Alibaba, one of China’s largest tech companies, came under government scrutiny in 2020. The company reportedly laid off more than 10,000 employees last year. report According to Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Country Garden, one of China’s largest listed property developers, 30,000 In 2022, the number of employees will decline, according to a think tank founded by state-owned media firm Beijing Business Today.
Young people in China face a large gap between supply and demand for labor. According to official data, he expects 11.6 million students to graduate from college this year, a record high and nearly one million more than last year. Economic growth had started to slow even before the pandemic, but future classes are expected to be even bigger.
Another challenge is the mismatch between the jobs graduates want and the jobs available. Industries such as construction and transportation, which typically attract migrant workers without a degree, have rebounded. But the recovery in sectors such as technology and education has been slow.
These days, even becoming a junior civil servant working in the government has become difficult. Last year, a record 2.6 million people took the national civil service exam. 37,100 entry level position.
The country’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, has urged young people to go to remote areas to find work.eat bitterness” is a Chinese expression that refers to enduring hardships.
However, today’s educated youth in China want jobs with good working conditions in fields such as the Internet, education, culture and entertainment. Most of those jobs are not in rural areas.
“College students want to go to big cities,” said Nie Laiming, a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Financial Law, a research institute.
Rising youth unemployment could cause wider problems June report This is a paper from China Macroeconomic Forum, a think tank of Renmin University of China.
“If not dealt with properly, it can lead to non-economic social problems and even ignite political fuses,” the report said.
Daisuke Wakabayashi and Keith Bradshire Contributed to the report.