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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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More than a fifth of Chinese age 16 to 24 are out of work.
Spain and other southern EU countries have experienced this, and even higher unemployment rates in the past, but with China’s rather large population, we’re about 30 million young people in a country with few safety nets.
China’s economy barely grew in the second quarter from the first and youth unemployment hit a record high in June, providing evidence of a fading recovery.
So what is Xi going to do when these 30 million hit the streets to demonstrate? Draft them and attack Taiwan?
... Are you talking about students? Lol
I doubt it, people in full time education aren't generally counted as unemployed.
Here's Chinese media talking about it. They're obviously worried, but it's not an existential issue. The total unemployment rate is a pretty normal ~5%, the youth rate is currently just disproportionately high.
It's a demographic. I'm sure there are Chinese students in there but a lot less than you think. The.secondary school system is selective in China. Point is that China has negative impacts from economic downturn which is affecting its population.
Their higher education enrollment percentage for that demographic is comparable to the US (60% vs 65%).
Does that include people in school?
This is the official government reporting: https://data.stats.gov.cn/english/easyquery.htm?cn=A01
As of Jun 2023, the "The Urban Surveyed Unemployment Rate of the Population Aged from 16 to 24(%)" was 21.3%.
The "Urban Surveyed Unemployment Rate of the Population Aged from 25 to 59(%)" was 4.1%.
The overall unemployment rate was 5.2%.
This site references the same data, but provides better visual charts:
https://tradingeconomics.com/china/youth-unemployment-rate
https://tradingeconomics.com/china/unemployment-rate
the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The sluggish pace of growth in 2023 is piling pressure on Beijing to reignite an expansion that is in danger of fizzling out as consumers refrain from spending and exports slump. A drawn-out real estate crunch and shaky local-government finances are compounding the gloom. More than a fifth of Chinese age 16 to 24 are out of work.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-economy-barely-grows-as-recovery-fades-5652a92a?mod=hp_lead_pos1
No. School is “work” in that statistic.
Am I supposed to believe a 1/5th of 16 year olds aren't in school?
Yeah I was going to say that seemed like a weird range to cherry pick. I have to imagine the 16-17 crowd in the US is like, 25-50% employed at best, and that's 2/9. 5-6/9 in that range are school age if you count college.
I wonder what that looks like for the US
it's 7.5% for the US and 13.9% for the Euro zone. India, which has a similar population to China is at 17.9% which is so much lower than I would have imagined.
The situation isn't really a lack of jobs, it's that younger generations don't want to work the factory jobs (because they all studied for better jobs) and there is pressure to look after parents. Not only is there an imbalance in young vs old people due to the one child policy but China also passed a law that required children to provide mental and financial support to their parents. Some parents are effectively paying their children to look after them, thereby removing them from the workforce count.
https://www.voanews.com/a/china-elder-care-law-a-struggle-for-one-child-families/1704200.html