China's Youth Unemployment Hits Record High; Job Market Weakness is Likely to Persist

The Conference Board uses cookies to improve our website, enhance your experience, and deliver relevant messages and offers about our products. Detailed information on the use of cookies on this site is provided in our cookie policy. For more information on how The Conference Board collects and uses personal data, please visit our privacy policy. By continuing to use this Site or by clicking "OK", you consent to the use of cookies.

China's Youth Unemployment Hits Record High; Job Market Weakness is Likely to Persist

September 09, 2022 | Report

Insights for What’s Ahead

China’s surveyed youth jobless rate climbed to almost 20 percent in July, a record high since tracking began in 2018.

A confluence of factors is contributing to China’s youth unemployment problem. Many are temporary, like the ongoing economic disruption due to pandemic-related control measures, a slow service sector recovery, and regulatory clampdowns. Others are deeper structural factors like jobs-to-skills and career expectation mismatches.

Improving the situation will largely depend on a recovery in consumer services and associated increases in hiring. While there are signs suggesting that a recovery in China’s employment levels is underway (y-o-y growth for new job creation improved in July, but year-to-date growth is still down compared with last year), a full recovery in the short-term is unlikely, given current economic conditions and ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.

China's Youth Unemployment Hits Record High

What’s Happening?

The unemployment rate for 16–24-year-olds hit a historic high of 19.9 percent in July. This is up 0.3 percentage points from June, 3.7 percentage points from July last year, and 6 percentage points from July 2019. It means that one in five young people in China are now jobless – significantly more than in the pre-COVID-19 era.