China's unemployment rate for 16-to-24-year olds drops to 17.6% in September, excluding students

China's unemployment rate for the urban labor force aged 16 to 24, excluding students, has dropped to 17.6 percent in September, down from 18.8 percent in August, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday.

The decline reflects the ongoing efforts to stabilize employment, particularly the employment of college graduates.

The unemployment rate for the labor force aged 25 to 29, excluding students, dropped to 6.7 percent in September from 6.9 percent in August. The unemployment rate for the labor force aged 30 to 59, excluding students, was 3.9 percent in September, remaining unchanged from last month.

The drop in the youth unemployment rate from August to September is mainly because more graduates from the class of 2024 began securing jobs, said Wang Pingping, a statistician with the NBS.

By September, as more of the graduates landed jobs, the unemployment rate for young people aged 16 to 24 and 25 to 29, excluding students, decreased significantly, Wang said.

As more graduates find jobs and start working, the overall employment situation for college graduates is expected to improve in the coming months, Wang added.

China's job market remained generally stable in the first three quarters of 2024. The surveyed urban unemployment rate averaged 5.1 percent in the first three quarters, down 0.2 percentage points from the same period last year, the NBS data showed.

In September, the surveyed urban unemployment rate in the country stood at 5.1 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month.

This year, Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to stabilize employment, particularly the employment of college graduates, Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the NBS, told a press conference on Friday.

While overall employment faces certain pressure, the job market remains stable, Sheng noted, citing continued economic growth, the expanding service sector, and demographic changes as contributing factors.

In September, China issued a set of guidelines to promote high-quality, sufficient employment.

According to the guidelines, efforts would be made to create more high-quality jobs, including transforming and upgrading traditional industries, fostering and strengthening emerging industries, developing future industries, and accelerating the development of advanced manufacturing clusters in the country.