China’s youth unemployment problem has become a crisis we can no longer ignore

Youth unemployment is a global problem, but in China the rate - 21.3% - is particularly alarming, not just because it’s high, but because it could affect other economies and geopolitical relations.

The release of the rate, which more than doubled the pre-COVID rate of May 2018, coincided with China’s National Bureau of Statistics announcing it would no longer report age specific data because it needed to “improve and optimise labour force survey statistics”.

Youth unemployment is a complex issue, but even more so in China as a result of government policy and society’s expectations.