A record number of college students will graduate in China next year as Beijing strives to put the world’s second-largest economy on firmer ground.
The education ministry anticipates a record 12.22 million graduates, a figure larger than the population of Ohio and 430,000 more than the number of graduates this year, which also set a record.
This will further strain an already saturated job market amid the continuing economic uncertainty that has characterized China’s post-pandemic recovery, inspiring Chinese youth to describe this period as the “garbage time of history.”
The country’s property market continues to slide, and industries such as Big Tech and tutoring that once heavily recruited fresh graduates have not fully recovered from regulatory crackdowns by President Xi Jinping.
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China’s statistics bureau reported a 17.6 percent unemployment rate for residents age 16 to 24 in September, down from 18.8 percent in August.
Overall unemployment was 5 percent last month, down 0.1 points from September, the bureau reported Friday.
Notably, China temporarily stopped updating its youth unemployment statistics for six months after it hit a record high of 21.3 percent in June 2023. Analysts have cast doubt on the relative improvements posted since January, when the reports resumed with a new methodology that excluded students.
China’s unemployment reports also exclude those living in rural areas and those who have given up looking for work, yet they do include urban dwellers working as little as one hour per week.
Universities and local governments across the country have organized 55,000 recruitment events, featuring 10.93 million jobs, since September, state media outlet the China Daily reported.
The education ministry also plans to host in-person and online events seeking to hire graduates in education, hoping to create over 180,000 job openings for fresh graduates next year, according to the outlet.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry with an emailed request for comment outside of office hours.
The influx of millions of young job-seekers will add further pressure at a time when many in their 30s voice frustrations over age discrimination and being turned down for younger, cheaper hires. Starting next year, China will raise the age of statutory retirement for the first time, a move that could further crowd the labor force.
But Friday’s statistics bureau report highlighted a few positive signs for the Chinese economy.
Retail sales, a measure of consumption, rose by 4.8 percent year on year in October, up 1.6 percent from September and marked the strongest performance since the January-February period, which is combined due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
