Young Chinese still have difficulty finding work

BEIJING – A year after the success of the coronavirus pandemic, young Chinese are still struggling to find work.

The unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds was 13.1% in February, well above the national urban unemployment rate of 5.5%, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.

The unemployment rate of 13.1% of young people is the same as during the first quarter of last year, the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in China.

The high figure implies “a continuing challenge of labor insufficiency and pressure on the labor market,” said Bruce Pang, head of macro research and strategy at China Renaissance. He added that, based on the contraction of labor measures from monthly government and third-party surveys, companies do not seem eager to fill vacancies as the economic recovery slows.

Young people face a particularly high competition for work.

This year, a record 9.09 million students are expected to enter the staff, surpassing last year’s record of 8.74 million, according to official data.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the number of new urban jobs fell to 13.52 million in 2019, from 13.61 million in 2018, according to official data. Last year, as the world struggled to recover from the pandemic, only 11.86 million new urban jobs were created.

China aims to create 11 million new urban jobs this year and achieve an unemployment rate of 5.5%.

In an annual review of the economy this month, Premier Li Keqiang said there is “growing” pressure to ensure people have jobs. The Chinese economy grew by 2.3% last year and authorities have set a conservative growth target of more than 6% for this year.

In contrast to countries that have distributed cash to citizens to stimulate spending, China has focused on supporting companies and their employees with cheaper tax cuts and loans. He shared Thursday with reporters how the owner of a pandemic-affected store was able to keep afloat the nearly 20 workers in the business with life compensation.