Participants attend a large job fair for 2026 college graduates in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region on November 19, 2025, at Beijing University of Technology. More than 200 employers from the region are offering over 4,000 job vacancies. Photo: VCG

China's urban unemployment rate for the age group between 16-24, excluding students, stood at 16.9 percent in November, which showed improvement from the 17.3-percent reading in October. The rate for the 25-29 age group, excluding students, was 7.2 percent, unchanged from October, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday. 

In addition, the jobless rate for urban workers aged between 30-59, excluding students, was 3.8 percent in November, also unchanged from October, the NBS data showed.

Overall, China's job market remained generally stable, with the surveyed urban unemployment rate holding steady at 5.1 percent in November.

In the first 11 months of this year, the surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.2 percent on average, and the country created 12.1 million urban jobs during the period, meeting its full-year target of creating 12 million jobs a month ahead of schedule.

"China's youth jobless rate improved moderately in November compared with October, showing that though structural issues persist, the country's job market remains generally stable, and that the country is on track to achieve the annual target of reaching urban unemployment rate of around 5.5 percent," Li Chang'an, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Thursday.

According to Li, a number of positive factors have contributed to China's stable job market, including a series of policies rolled out by the Chinese authorities to stabilize urban employment, as well as the acceleration in the development of new quality productive forces, which injects new impetus into the job market and helps improve employment quality. 

"China's economy has been developing in a sound and stable manner, also laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of employment market," Li noted.

An official from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that in the next steps, China will make an all-out effort to stabilize the job market, expand job opportunities and improve growth quality, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

For example, authorities will focus on key employment groups and adopt targeted measures to stabilize and expand employment. They will strengthen vocational skills training to better enhance workers' employability, while optimizing public employment services to better facilitate efficient matching between people and jobs. Meanwhile, measures will be rolled out to increase support for entrepreneurship to fully leverage its multiplier effect in driving employment.

Global Times