A Chinese professor s public claim that youth unemployment in China may have reached nearly 50% has reignited concerns about official statistics and the country s weak labour market. The official rate for people aged 16-24 was 19.7% in March, but Peking University s Zhang Dandan suggests that including the "lying flat" young people who aren t actively seeking employment would result in the rate rising to about 46.5%. Regulations introduced since 2021 in sectors including tutoring, online platforms and property have hit young employees and the well-educated to a greater extent, she claimed.
An unusually public claim by a Chinese professor that the country s youth unemployment rate might have hit close to 50% in March has revived a debate about official statistics and focused.
BEIJING An unusually public claim by a Chinese professor that the country’s youth unemployment rate might have hit close to 50% in March has revived a debate about official statistics and focused attention on a weak labor market.