What’s new: China’s President Xi Jinping pledged to prioritize policies to boost the job market and support youth employment during a Monday Politburo seminar.
“Employment is the most basic livelihood of the people, and it is related to the healthy development of the economy and society, and the long-term stability of the country,” Xi was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
The president called for efforts to promote high-quality and sufficient employment. Support should be offered to industries and businesses that can generate employment, aiming to stabilize and expand the availability of jobs.
Xi highlighted the mismatch between the supply and demand of human resources and called for structural contradictions in the job market to be addressed by enhancing education and vocational training to shape China’s technological revolution and industrial transformation.
China should “develop new business entities and models to cultivate new professions and create new sources of job growth,” Xi said.
The context: China’s job market has been under pressure, particularly for new graduates, as the economy struggles with a sluggish post-pandemic recovery and a prolonged property market slump.
China’s urban unemployment rate has fallen gradually to reach 5% in April, but unemployment among 25 to 29-year-olds remains at 7.1%, showing the persistent difficulties young people face in finding work in the cities, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Unemployment for those aged 16 to 24, excluding students, stood at 14.7% in April, down slightly from March.
With 11.8 million graduates expected to enter the job market this year, increasing unemployment among highly educated workers, especially the young, has been a concern for Chinese policymakers. The government has pledged support for private business.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
