China risks confidence with youth jobless hack
What do you do if record levels of youth unemployment are weighing on confidence? If you’re China, you stop reporting the data altogether.
What do you do if record levels of youth unemployment are weighing on broader confidence in the economy? If you’re China, you stop reporting the data altogether.
After the jobless rate for people aged 16 to 24 hit 21.3% in June, China’s National Bureau of Statistics omitted the figure in its July economic activity report last week. The data needed “further optimisation”, a spokesman said, to determine whether students looking for work before graduation should be included in the statistic.
While the suspension takes away an important metric in assessing the health of the world’s second-largest economy, it could, however, be a sign policymakers in Beijing are prepared to take greater action to support its stuttering post-pandemic recovery. The omission suggests officials are concerned about negative sentiment coursing through the country, especially with the rare explosion of public protests during the worst of China’s pandemic lockdown last year, largely driven by younger voices on social media.
Of the slew of data the statistics bureau did report, growth in retail sales continued to soften, industrial output remained flat and both home sales and housing starts declined.
