Youth unemployment in China ticked up to 17.1% in July, official figures showed, the highest level this year as the world's second-largest economy faces mounting headwinds

Youth unemployment in China ticked up to 17.1% in July, official figures showed, the highest level this year as the world’s second-largest economy faces mounting headwinds.

China is battling soaring joblessness among young people, a heavily indebted property sector and intensifying trade issues with the West.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who is responsible for economic policy, called Friday for struggling companies to be “heard” and “their difficulties truly addressed,” according to the state news agency Xinhua.

The unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-olds released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was up markedly from June’s 13.2%.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    3 months ago

    The Chinese economy has been astonishingly successful. What has it been? 4 decades of constant growth?
    I must admit I was beginning to think China had found some magical golden model, and their economy had become unstoppable.
    I wonder if the way they calculate unemployment rate is comparable to most western countries? If so 17.1% is surprisingly high IMO.

    The closely watched metric peaked at 21.3% in June of 2023, before authorities suspended publication of the figures and later changed their methodology to exclude students.

    I think most countries do this, as a students main job is considered to be studying.

    • marcos@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      3 months ago

      They’ve got from poor into a middle-economy country, trapped just like the rest of us Brazil, Argentina, Russia, India and etc by the lack of a real Democracy that will let people invest on themselves.

      • GiveMemes@jlai.luEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        Argentina had a real democracy for a while. The economic problems of Latin American countries like Brazil and Argentina have largely been because of foreign power involvement in both industry and politics. Both of those countries were controlled by the US during Operation Condor iirc, but that doesn’t even begin to take into account the way that these countries were kept from industrialization by the high demand for ore, rubber, and food created by US and European industrialization. Brazil was considered an integral ally during WW2 by both Germany and later the US. It’s not quite so simple as: democracy good… The US overthrew several democratically elected leaders including one in Argentina who was actually trying to reform workers rights and industrialize the country. Actually, that’s what most of the coups America started in Latin America were started over.

        Argentina itself is in a uniquely bad position. They have almost all of the population and wealth focused in Buenos Aires, but even then, the wealth disparity is massive between classes. What Argentina could really use is a leveling of the play field and ways to support the education and upbringing of its poorest citizens especially. Besides that, it’s main exports are agricultural and mining products, but many resources go unexploited. It has failed to industrialize not because people can’t invest in themselves but because the government has failed to invest in the people.

        What did the US government do that spurred huge amounts of growth? The New Deal and the GI bill, along with the expansion of the interstate system. Investing in the people, many of them poor, just back from the war, and with little to no skill. By uplifting its worse off citizens, the country was able to secure massive economic growth.

        Anyway sorry for the rant. I hope it isn’t too jumbled. I just care about this.

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.eeEnglish
          4·
          3 months ago

          Sigh.

          Brazil is held back because they have a tiny majority of super-rich landholders who control the political landscape, not the US.

          There’s a name for them, they prefer Brazil does worse if it means they get more control.

          Until their political power (they control most states outside the urbanized ones) is neutralized, Brazil is doomed.

          • marcos@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            As the GP points, it’s not so simple. The landholders are not the super-rich, the super-rich are all politicians, without exception. The next tier of Brazilian riches are industrialists, and nearly all of those got everything they have by exploiting political connections.

            And guess what, the successful politicians of today are all people that developed their political career during the last dictatorship or close allies of them. And if you look at party financing, media allocation, and how the electoral courts behave, the reason becomes obvious quite quickly.

    • Magister@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      And also no women for a lot of young men. Only way is to put all those young unemployed men in the army, and start a war somewhere, Taiwan first. Unfortunate…

      • TwinTusks@bitforged.spaceEnglish
        6·
        3 months ago

        Women is a touchy topic, it is well understand that there’s surplus of women in urban cities while there’s a shortage in rural areas.

        • mohammed_alibi@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          3 months ago

          Yep! There’s a surplus of educated women, who are too educated / accomplished in their careers to want to marry uneducated rural men. And many of them also deferred marriage for their education and career and thus became a bit too old to bear children. All of this just exacerbates the male to female ratio problem in China, which is also a huge problem for China’s demographics.

          China is going to shrink in population, Japan, Korea, Taiwan also have these problems.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      I did, too. I thought this metric was a good thing. Like, “oh good, China is addressing their child labor problem.”