Young people's unemployment rate sees slight rise

Young people's unemployment rate saw a slight rise in March and senior officials called for more support to help the large number of college graduates entering the market to find work.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the surveyed unemployment rate of young people aged from 25 to 29, in urban areas, was 7.2 percent in March, up 0.8 percentage point from February. The number was 15.3 percent for youths aged between 16 to 24 in March, roughly on par with that in February.

These calculations do not include the current students attending schools and colleges, the NBS said.

However, urban areas' average unemployment rate, which was 5.2 percent, fell by 0.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.

Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the NBS, said at a recent news conference in Beijing that there are 11.76 million new college graduates entering the job market this year, and young people's unemployment rate slightly increased in first three months though the government did much work to help them find jobs.

He added that more support and efforts should be channeled to promote the young people's employment.