Job applicants search for positions at a spring job fair in Zhangjiagang, East China's Jiangsu Province on February 5, 2023. More than 100 local enterprises are offering 1,500 positions. Official data showed that 11.58 million graduates are expected to enter the job market in 2023, an increase of 820,000 people from 2022. Photo:cnsphoto

China is stepping up policy support to stabilize employment especially among youth, with the latest move coming from the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), which is assisting college students in their job searches. 

Some 35,000 college students have secured jobs this year through an employment campaign launched by the CYLC. Some of the students are from low-income families and will graduate this year, while others didn't land a job after graduating last year, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

The campaign has yielded offers of 897,000 positions at 52,000 enterprises, and there are further plans to support college students with internships and career guidance.

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate in April dropped 0.1 percentage points to 5.2 percent, while the youth unemployment rate rose from 19.6 percent in March to 20.4 percent for the 16-24 age group, official data showed. 

As the nation's overall job market is picking up but with a relatively high youth unemployment rate, some Western media have hyped the youth unemployment rate as being a "dark stain" on China's economy, affected by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which "decimated small businesses and damaged consumer confidence."

Despite the structural obstacles, the country's overall job market has continued to improve, while market entities are recovering from the COVID-19 impact amid firm government support, industry insiders said. 

Industry data indicate that the recruitment market in China has further stabilized in 2023, with growing labor demand in the first quarter, according to Chinese online recruitment service provider zhaopin.com on Thursday. Sectors such as on-site consumption and the new-energy industry have seen major increases in recruitment demand.  

The overall surveyed urban unemployment rate has dropped for two consecutive months, which is in line with the current environment as the nation's economy is steadily rebounding, and market entities have been emerging from the negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies of the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Sectors such high-tech manufacturing and the digital industry have been hiring more people amid an optimized economic structure and recovering market confidence, according to the report from zhaopin.com. 

The report noted that the major causes of the relatively high youth unemployment rate were the result of structural contradictions in the nation's industrial upgrading and adjustments, as well as shifts in the thinking of young applicants who want more stable jobs that feature a slower pace. 

Amid the industrial upgrading, previous forces for absorbing fresh graduates such as private enterprises and sectors like the internet, education and real estate have been affected. 

Emerging industries boosted, by the rapid development of the digital economy, have created more opportunities for young job seekers who are adapting to flexible positions. This is shown by the rapid development of new occupations such as ride-hailing drivers, food delivery personnel and vloggers and bloggers. Official data showed that more than 200 million people have such flexible jobs.

China's youth employment market has its own characteristics such as different standards for defining fresh graduates. The definition ranges from one to three years among domestic regions, which may add to the youth unemployment rate, so it can't be fully compared with Western economies, Li said. 

The figure in the second quarter is usually higher in most years as fresh graduates begin to seek job opportunities at that time, Li noted. 

Responsible authorities in China have been implementing targeted measures to bolster employment among young job seekers as the labor market has continued to improve. The number of fresh graduates in 2023 is expected to reach a record 11.23 million people.

For instance, the Ministry of Education is running a special employment promotion campaign from May to August to ensure high-quality, full employment among college graduates in 2023, the Xinhua News Agency reported earlier in May.