After two months of reaching fresh highs, the jobless rate for the nation’s 16-to-24-year-olds, excluding students, fell by just over a percentage point in September, Reuters reports.
Official figures on Tuesday showed that September’s rate was 17.6 percent, down from 18.8 percent in August. The age group’s unemployment rate was 13.2 percent back in June, just before some 12 million graduates entered the job market. It ballooned to 17.1 percent in July.
Youth unemployment reached a record 21.3 percent in June last year, prompting the National Bureau of Statistics to alter its methodology and exclude current students in the measurement – a change that’s been reflected in figures since December 2023.
[See more: Macao’s latest unemployment figures remain unchanged]
Last month’s unemployment rate for people aged 25 to 29 was 6.7 percent (and also excludes current university students), while the rate for those aged 30 to 59 was 3.9 percent.
Officials have meanwhile expressed confidence that the country’s economy would “continue the stabilisation and recovery trend that occurred in September” and achieve the government’s growth target of about five percent for the full year.
The nation’s growth rate across the first three quarters of the year was 4.8 percent, with the third quarter coming in at 4.6 percent, RTHK reported.
