China’s Youth Unemployment Rate Hits 18.9% in August as Questions Over Data Persist

China’s urban youth unemployment rate rose to 18.9 percent in August, its highest level so far this year, as critics continued to question whether the figures fully reflect the difficulties facing young job seekers.

According to The Paper, citing data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Sept. 17, the unemployment rate among urban workers ages 16 to 24, excluding students, rose to 18.9 percent in August, up one percentage point from July.

The rate had fallen to a year-to-date low of 14.9 percent in June before climbing to 17.9 percent in July and 18.9 percent in August.

Among people ages 25 to 29, the unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points from July to 7.5 percent. The rate for those ages 30 to 59 remained unchanged at 3.9 percent.

The NBS separately reported that China’s overall urban surveyed unemployment rate reached 5.3 percent in August, up 0.1 percentage points from July and the highest level since March. The average rate from January through August was 5.2 percent, unchanged from the same period in 2025.

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Critics question how unemployment is measured

The latest figures prompted renewed criticism on Chinese social media over the government’s methodology and definition of employment.

An X user known as “Tai Ping Gentleman (Mr. Jie)” described the figures as “self-deception” and wrote: “If chanting slogans and playing games with numbers can fix the economy and unemployment rate, then by all means, go ahead!”

The blogger argued that the official definition of employment can include people who worked for only one hour during the survey week, including delivery workers, ride-hailing drivers, interns, livestreamers and temporary workers.

Under that definition, young people may have occasional work or unstable income while still being classified as employed.

The blogger also noted that people who are no longer seeking work are not counted as unemployed. This can include young people preparing to retake graduate-school entrance examinations, delaying graduation, relying on their families for financial support or participating in the trend known as tang ping, or “lying flat.”

The survey is also limited to urban areas, meaning some young people in rural areas or those who have returned to the countryside are outside the scope of the urban unemployment measure.

Other social media users expressed similar skepticism.

One wrote, “Young people in the 16–24 and 25–29 age groups have it particularly hard. As the saying goes, ‘graduation means unemployment.’”

Another commented, “Even the official beautified data can’t cover it up anymore!”

Revised methodology excludes students

China’s official youth unemployment rate climbed to 21.3 percent in June 2023 before authorities stopped publishing the figure.

Publication resumed in January 2024 after the NBS revised its methodology to exclude students from the youth unemployment calculation.

Fang Congyan, an assistant research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told Radio Free Asia that excluding students could cause the official measure to understate unemployment among young people.

Fang said some fourth-year university students who struggle to find work may postpone graduation and therefore remain outside the unemployment figures.

She also noted that people who work more than one hour during the survey week can be classified as employed.

Other young people who have stopped actively seeking employment may also fall outside the official measure, Fang said, including those sometimes described in China as “full-time children” because they remain financially dependent on their parents.