China slashed its high youth unemployment by nearly a third this month—at least on paper. However, some experts say the government’s new methodology, which follows a half-year moratorium on publishing this data, does little more than whitewash a systemic problem.
One told Newsweek removing students from the sample is what caused the drop. Though Beijing reported last week it had hit its stated goal of at least 5 percent GDP growth in 2023, the world’s second-largest economy faces major headwinds in the long term.
These include an aging workforce, declining foreign investment, a property market slump, and lower global demand for exports. The Chinese Statistics Bureau reported last week that unemployment among the 16- to 24-year-old demographic was 14.9 percent in December.
This would be a considerable improvement over the 21.3 percent reported for that age bracket last June, compared to 5.2 percent for the general population. China’s statistics bureau didn’t immediately […]
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