About 30 percent of China's 14 million unemployed urban
population are young people under 35, according to a national
report.
"On average, 10 million people -- mainly young people -- are
injected into the country's urban labor force each year," said the
report released on Wednesday. Based on research into the
development of Chinese youth since 2000, the report was written by
the China Youth and Children Research Center (CYCRC).
"There are a huge number of unemployed young people in cities,
and this has created a lot of pressure," said Liu Junyan of the
CYCRC.
Most of the 150 to 200 million surplus rural labor force waiting
to be employed in non-agriculture sectors are also young people,
according to the report.
The situation is partially explained by the surge of college
graduates, who have had to be absorbed into the urban workforce, it
said.
The proportion of young people, especially rural youth aged
between 20 and 29, working away from home is much higher than other
groups of Chinese, said the report, adding education, work and
marriage have prompted Chinese young to migrate,
Nearly 37 percent of the migrant population are moving to the
booming southern province of Guangdong.
The report also showed that a large number of Chinese youth have
been employed in the country's private and rural enterprises, or
become employers and set up their own businesses.
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2007)