NBC reports that "China, facing record youth unemployment, says it will stop releasing data on it." The article indicates that "Chinese officials announced Tuesday that they would temporarily stop publishing the youth unemployment rate, which has reached record highs in recent months, saying the way it is calculated needs refinement."
[Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics] said the release of unemployment data for youth as well as other age groups had been suspended because “the economy and society are constantly developing and changing, statistics need to be constantly improved, and labor force survey statistics need to be further improved and optimized.”
He did not say how long the suspension would last.
Fu said that in 2022, China had 96 million people between the ages of 16 and 24, over 65 million of whom were students. He said more research was needed to determine which age range to use and whether students seeking jobs before graduation should be included in the unemployment rate.
The article relates that the urban unemployment rate for people ages 16 to 24 hit a record 21.3% in June. But, the article adds, the "true rate could be even higher, up to 46.5%, if it includes those who are neither in school nor actively looking for work, a Chinese professor suggested last month in an article in respected Chinese financial magazine Caixin that was later censored." Part of the problem, according to the article, is that China is not creating enough jobs for university graduates: "Facing bleak prospects in China’s major cities, about 47% of graduates returned to their hometowns within six months of graduation last year, up from 43% in 2018...."
The Soylent Green solution?
ReplyDeleteThat would seem to be the solution per Peter Turchin's research.
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