Employment prospects recovering

National Bureau of Statistics says urban jobless rate fell to 5.4 percent in September

Emerging from the COVID-19 shock, China's job market has maintained its steady recovery as the unemployment rate continues to fall, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Monday.

The surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.4 percent in September, 0.2 percentage points lower than in August, and a decline of 0.8 percentage points from 6.2 percent in February, the bureau said.

Speaking about the unemployment situation of the 25 to 59 age group－the majority of the working population－bureau spokeswoman Liu Aihua said that its surveyed jobless rate was 4.8 percent in September, 0.6 percentage points lower than the national level.

The nation also saw progress in employment creation. According to the bureau, about 8.98 million new jobs were created in urban areas in the past three quarters, almost reaching the target of over 9 million set in May during the annual sessions of China's top legislative and political advisory bodies.

Liu said that the recovery of the job market is due to the government's continuous investment in improving residents' livelihoods and its employment-first policy.

The employment situation for college graduates also eased last month.

The latest data show that in September, the unemployment rate of people aged between 20 and 24 who graduated from educational institutes at the level of vocational colleges and above saw a decrease of 2.4 percentage points compared with August. However, it increased by 4 percentage points year-on-year, meaning that this age group still faces pressure in finding jobs, she said.

"Earlier this year, a number of companies suspended their recruitment campaigns due to the impact of the coronavirus, which put tremendous pressure on this age group. Their situation improved in September following the graduation season," she said.

Liu Yuyun, a 21-year-old graduate of Beihang University in Beijing, said she had a hard time when trying to find a job.

Liu said she started submitting resumes to recruitment platforms in December and received several interview invitations in January. But the interview plans were messed up by the coronavirus pandemic and then recruitment was suspended.

"I kept waiting at home till early March, when I started to get interviews online. It was not easy to get chances for interviews after on-site job fairs that are held annually at the campus were canceled due to the pandemic," she said.

Although her original plan was to choose the best offer from at least three job offers, Liu said she accepted the first job offered to her in May by a Beijing-based internet company focusing on online education, because the situation taught her to seize any possible chance to get a job even though it was far from satisfactory.