China’s young want to work. For the government
Youth unemployment is now shockingly high
China is a land of remarkable statistics. But an official figure published on May 16th still managed to stand out. The unemployment rate among China’s urban youth, aged between 16 and 24, exceeded one in five in April.
The figure boggles the mind for a variety of reasons. China is running short of young people. It is trying, without much success, to raise the birth rate. Its economic future hangs on increased education, which could improve the quality of its workers even as their quantity declines. China is also famous for mobilising resources, including manpower. Yet it is wasting large numbers of the best-educated cohort it has ever produced.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline "The job search goes on"
From the June 3rd 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from China
How Chinese networks clean dirty money on a vast scale
These shadowy “banks” are becoming the financiers of choice for transnational criminal gangs
The dark side of growing old
A coming wave of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia will test China to its limits
Examining the fluff that frustrates northern China
An effort to improve the environment has had unintended consequences