Is China's youth unemployment rising as record graduates enter the workforce?
Core argument: China's urban jobless rate for 16–24 year-olds excluding students rose to 17.8% in July from 14.5% in June, the highest level since last August, according to National Bureau of Statistics data.
China’s youth unemployment rate rose to its highest level in 11 months in July, as a record number of graduates enter an already shaky labour market. The urban jobless rate for the 16-24 age group, excluding students, rose to 17.8% last month from 14.5% in June, putting an end to four straight months of decline and marking the metric’s highest level since last August, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. The figures come as a record 12.2 million university students graduate this summer, with a majority of them joining a sizeable applicant pool that has had trouble finding open positions that meet their education and skill levels.

