Chart of the Day: China’s Record High Youth Unemployment Rate

China’s youth unemployment rate in urban areas in May was the highest since records began in 2018 as Covid-19 lockdowns restricted mobility and weighed on the labor market, with the government warning the situation could get worse as millions of fresh graduates start looking for work.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate among workers aged 16 to 24 — which captures graduates from high school and college — climbed to 18.4% in May from 18.2% in April, according to figures released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). That’s the highest since the bureau started publishing the survey data in January 2018.