Youth employment rate may improve in August

Candidates look at employment opportunities at a job fair in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. [Photo by Liu Jianhua/For China Daily]

China's youth unemployment rate, which had increased in recent months, is expected to go down in August thanks to a recovering economy and the wide implementation of employment policies.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, the unemployment rate among surveyed young people, age 16 to 24, rose to 21.3 percent in June, compared with 20.8 percent in May and 20.4 percent in April.

However, the unemployment rate in urban areas in June remained unchanged at 5.2 percent compared with May, data showed.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing on Monday, NBS spokesman Fu Linghui said the youth unemployment rate sees "seasonal fluctuations". It goes up during graduation season due to the influx of young graduates into the job market.

"The rate will decrease gradually from August, with the graduation season coming to an end and young people landing jobs," Fu said.

Pang Shi, director of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science's department of employment and entrepreneurship, said the employment of young people is a global issue. China not only faces the common pressures of youth employment seen in other countries and regions, it also has specific problems because of its current stage of development, she said.

The labor market experiences fluctuations as the economic cycle progresses, Pang said, noting that the imbalance between youth labor supply and market demand, as well as young people's career views, affects the group's employment prospects.

"For example, most young graduates still favor metropolises and large companies, State-owned companies and government departments being their top choices, while nearly 80 percent of market demand is from private companies," she said.

Many graduates delay their job-seeking plans until after they receive their civil service exam results, and in the process miss out on job opportunities, Pang said.

Also, information overload and mixed voices on the internet can trigger anxiety among young people, which may lower their confidence levels and affect their will to work, she added.

Authorities at all levels have prioritized the employment of young people in recent years, and have launched and implemented a range of supportive policies and measures to help them land jobs, which in turn has protected their right to work.

On June 6, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security launched a campaign that aims to collect information about more than 10 million job vacancies for college graduates and young people in 100 days.

As part of the campaign, job fairs are being organized every week. Between July 10 and Sunday, four online job fairs were organized by the ministry. They attracted around 17,000 recruiters who offered 860,000 vacancies.

The ministry also released China's first regulation on the management of human resources agencies recently to tighten supervision over their operations in order to ensure a safer job market, especially for young people who lack experience.

The regulation applies to agencies and organizations offering human resources services, including collecting and publishing job information, offering consultancy and guidance, and having labor dispatching services. The regulation will take effect on Aug 1.

Pang said the fundamental way of tackling youth employment challenges is developing the economy to create more job opportunities and improving the stability of these jobs.

Private companies make a large contribution to both economic stability and job security, and authorities at all levels can formulate favorable policies to encourage them to create more vacancies, she added.