China has suspended publication of its youth unemployment data on Aug. 15, pending a revaluation of how it calculates its data.

Reevaluation

Reuters quoted Fu Linghui, a spokesman for China's National Bureau of Statistics, who said that the release of youth unemployment data would be suspended until authorities had a chance to "optimise" collection methods.

Fu said that the number of students attending university had increased in recent years, and that student's "main responsibility" was studying.

"Society has different views on whether students looking for jobs before graduation should be included in labour force surveys and statistics", which seems to indicate that China's statisticians might seek to redefine labour statistics to exclude students who had not yet graduated.

Fu also said that the current considered age range of 16-24 "needs further research".

William Yang, a correspondent for Voice of America News, further quoted Fu,

"For example, in recent years, among the urban youth in China, the scale of school students has been expanding. 2022, there are more than 96 million urban youth aged 16-24 in China, of which more than 65 million are school students."

"For example, in recent years, among the urban youth in China, the scale of school students has been expanding. 2022, there are more than 96 million urban youth aged 16-24 in China, of which more than 65 million are school students."

— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) August 15, 2023

High, could be higher

China's Youth Unemployment rate was recorded at nearly 21.3 per cent for June, according to the Financial Times, but was not released in the July economic report.

For context, youth unemployment is at around 6 per cent in Singapore, 8.5 per cent for the United States, and and 4.2 per cent in Japan.

FT said that July's China economic report had not met expectations, with retail sales and industrial production growth slowing from June, and unemployment growing, albeit by 0.1 per cent.

But an earlier report by Reuters from July also said that some analysts in China were worried that the youth unemployment rate was actually much higher than the published rate, with a professor from Peking University saying that as many as 46 per cent of 16-24 year olds could be unemployed.

The discrepancy in numbers comes from how unemployment figures are generally calculated, with most official sources counting the number of people actively seeking work.

The professor included youths who were "lying flat", or intentionally not seeking work, amongst their number, indicating the number of people who were no longer seeking employment.

Head in the sand

The suspension of Youth Unemployment data was met with a degree of scepticism.

Reuters reported social media users of accusing China's government of ignoring a major issue, with one saying "if you close your eyes then it doesn't exist", with another accusing them of "burying your head in the sand".

The New York Times' report quoted another sarcastically commenting that the suspension of reporting had been "the only policy that really works to address high youth unemployment".

China's youth unemployment issue is characterised in a social media story from March this year, where a young woman was brought to tears as a result of a very difficult job search.

Slow down worries not slowing down

This latest economic data report comes amidst fears of China's economy slowing down, with consumer confidence and production yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, and many still worried about China's property market.

China's central bank had earlier on Aug 15 moved to lower interest rates in order to get banks to lend more, according to the NYT, but analysts it spoke to said that China's economic woes were more deep-seated than lower interest rates could solve.

Even United States President Joe Biden has commented on these concerns, saying on Aug 10 that China's economy was a "ticking time bomb" and that it was in "trouble".

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Top image via Tsinghua University/Facebook