China’s August youth jobless rate rises to nine-month high

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s August youth jobless rate climbed to the highest level since last December, the statistics bureau said on Friday, as new graduates started to hunt for offers on the job market, adding to the pressure on policymakers to take action.

The unemployment rate for 16-to-24-year-olds, excluding college students, rose to 18.8% last month, up from the 17.1% in July.

Other economic indicators have shown economic growth momentum slowed in August, putting the country at risk of missing its annual growth target of around 5%.

China resumed the publication of youth unemployment ratio last December after excluding college students from the survey pool. The highest level before the statistics method revision was 21.3% in June last year.

The unemployment rate for 25-to-29-year-olds, excluding college students, also rose to 6.9% in August from 6.5% a month prior, the statistics bureau said. The jobless ratio for 30-to-59-years-olds was unchanged, at 3.9%.

Rising unemployment in China pushed some college graduates into accepting low-paid work or even relying on their parents’ pensions, Reuters previously reported.

Some white-collar workers, especially in the finance industry, also face pay cuts, which analysts have said would lower already weak domestic consumption.

The nationwide survey-based jobless rate was up to 5.3% in August from 5.2% in July. The statistics bureau spokesperson Liu Aihua said last week that was due to the graduate season.

Official data showed China has 11.79 million college graduates this year, a record high.