China’s Employment Battle: $42 Billion Effort to Tackle Youth Unemployment

Amid China’s record-high youth unemployment rate last year, the Chinese government has reportedly invested around $42 billion to support employment.

On February 14, Xinhua news agency and People’s Daily reported, citing the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, that there were 12.44 million new employees in China last year, and the central and local governments directly invested over 300 billion yuan (approximately $42 billion) in employment and entrepreneurship.

Deputy Director of the Employment Promotion Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China, Yin Dongli, stated, “Youth employment rate, including university graduates, has fundamentally stabilized and continues to improve. The scale of rural labor moving outwards (the scale of farmer workers) continues to increase, and the scale of the labor force in the poverty-stricken population amounts to 33.97 million.”

Such remarks are consistent with President Xi Jinping’s evaluation on February 8, ahead of the Chinese New Year, that “employment and prices have fundamentally stabilized.” The Chinese party and government are implementing positive evaluations and outlooks at the policy level, as being wary of the “economic crisis theory” raised domestically and abroad.

Deputy Director Yin said, “This year, we will further strengthen the trend of employment stability and improvement. From a policy perspective, we will introduce non-economic policies while assessing their impact on employment, enhance the power of economic and social development in leading employment, and build the support system including fiscal subsidies, tax benefits, financial support, and social security.”

Meanwhile, the State Administration for Market Regulation of China recently announced that as of the end of last year, the number of business households (similar to self-employment) nationwide was 124 million, accounting for 67.4% of the total number of businesses.

The number of business households newly established last year was 22.582 million, an increase of 11.4% compared to 2022, and the number of workers employed by business households is about 300 million, according to the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Director of the State Administration for Market Regulation, Luo Wen, said, “The stable development of individual business households, which are the capillaries of the industrial and consumer networks and the nerve endings of the market, has supported the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of households. It demonstrates the strong vitality and resilience of the Chinese economy.”

China, struggling to speed up its economic recovery, has been troubled by a stagnant real estate market, weak domestic demand, US financial sanctions, and high unemployment rates. In particular, the youth unemployment rate, including university graduates, recorded a record high of 21.3% in June last year, raising concerns.

China, which had suspended the announcement of the youth unemployment rate since July last year, resumed the disclosure of the figures last month, excluding “undergraduates” from the statistical population, and announced that the annual youth unemployment rate for 2023 calculated using the new method was 14.9%.

Some suggest that the situation may be worse than this “official” unemployment rate.

In July last year, a research team led by Professor Zhang Dandan from Peking University estimated that the actual youth unemployment rate in March (official youth unemployment rate 19.6%) was 46.5%, combining the “Tang ping” (meaning lying flat and doing nothing) and “Kangaroo” (those who live dependent on their parents) tribes.