China Youth Jobless Rate Falls to 16.1%, Extending Decline
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A spring job fair in Guangzhou in 2026. Photo: VCG
China’s unemployment rate for youth ages 16 to 24 fell to 16.1% in February, marking an eighth straight month of decline.
The sustained drop in youth joblessness — a measure that excludes enrolled students — diverges from typical seasonal patterns and offers a bright spot in a labor market where unemployment among older groups ticked up slightly due to holiday effects.
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- China’s youth (16–24) unemployment rate fell to 16.1% in February 2026, marking eight months of decline, diverging from typical seasonal trends.
- Rates for ages 25–29 and 30–59 rose slightly to 7.2% and 4.2% respectively, influenced by the Spring Festival, while the national urban rate increased to 5.3%.
- China’s youth joblessness remains high globally: 9.5% in the US and 15.1% in the EU for under-25s.
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What Happened When
- December 2023：
- China revised its employment data methodology, removing enrolled students from the youth unemployment calculation and splitting the 25-to-59 age group into two subgroups.
- February 2025：
- China's unemployment rates for ages 25 to 29 and ages 30 to 59 were slightly higher than in February 2026.
- March 2025：
- Average weekly working hours for enterprise employees in China were last lower than 48.1 hours, before again reaching this low in February 2026.
- August 2025：
- The downward trend in China's youth unemployment rate (ages 16 to 24) began.
- January 2026：
- China's youth unemployment rate for ages 16 to 24 was 0.2 percentage points higher than February 2026, continuing a downward trend.
- January 2026：
- In the European Union, under-25 unemployment rate was 15.1%, compared with a general unemployment rate of 5.8%.
- February 2026：
- China's youth unemployment rate for ages 16 to 24 fell to 16.1%, marking an eighth straight month of decline.
- February 2026：
- The nationwide urban surveyed unemployment rate in China stood at 5.3%, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous month.
- February 2026：
- U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for ages 16 to 24 was 9.5%, above the overall rate of 4.4%.
- By February 2026：
- China's youth unemployment rate for ages 16 to 24 was 0.8 percentage points lower than a year earlier.
- March 16, 2026：
- NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui stated that China’s average urban unemployment rate for January and February 2026 was 5.3%, unchanged from the previous year.
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