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Author: Ellen Zhang, Gao Liangping, Ryan Woo
BEIJING (Reuters) – China still faces structural employment problems, the overall employment pressure has not yet eased, and an economic slowdown is preparing the country for the number of university graduates to hit a new high in 2024, the human resources minister said on Saturday.
Wang Xiaoping, Minister of Human Resources, said that the job market has started well this year, especially in the fields of artificial intelligence and big data, and 32,000 job fairs have been held so far.
Nonetheless, Wang told a news conference on the sidelines of the annual National People’s Congress session in Beijing that authorities would step up policy support to improve youth employment and help small private businesses.
China may have 11.79 million college graduates this year, she added, reiterating the Ministry of Education’s forecast.
At the start of this week’s parliamentary session, the government unveiled its 2024 economic growth target, targeting growth of “around 5%.” Last year, China’s gross domestic product grew by 5.2%.
But overall indicators tend to underestimate the tensions in its massive job market, especially among young people, including the millions of college graduates seeking jobs every year.
More than a fifth of China’s roughly 100 million people aged 16 to 24 were unemployed in June 2023, the latest data before National Bureau of Statistics officials abruptly suspended the series of surveys.
China resumed publishing data in January, but now excluding college students, the youth unemployment rate was 14.9% in December.
“Working in a factory”
Authorities are under pressure to create enough jobs, especially as more college graduates chase dwindling white-collar jobs amid a weakening economy following the coronavirus pandemic.
China seeks to steer them into vocational and technical jobs as the world’s second-largest economy builds advanced manufacturing and reduces its reliance on the West amid technology restrictions imposed by the United States and other countries.
But a lack of skilled talent remains a hurdle for the industry.
Wang said China needs to encourage young people to learn technical skills and work in factories in an effort to cultivate talent.
This year, more than 12 million new jobs have been created in China’s cities and towns, and the surveyed urban unemployment rate is controlled at around 5.5%.
Official data shows that 12.44 million new urban jobs were created last year, and the urban unemployment rate averaged 5.2%.
(This story has been corrected to fix youth unemployment rate in paragraph 7)
(Reporting by Ellen Zhang, Gao Liangping and Ryan Woo; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Sam Holmes)
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