China’s youth unemployment rate dropped in November, reports the South China Morning Post. However, competition remains fierce for university graduates trying to find work that matches their qualifications.

The jobless rate for those aged 16 to 24, excluding students, fell to 16.9% in November from 17.3% in October, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday. The rate was reported to have eased since August, when the graduation of a record 12.2 million university students over the summer pushed it to 18.9%, the highest level since the data set was adjusted in 2023 to exclude students.

The job market, weighed down by deflationary pressure and external risks, remains plagued by a mismatch between skills and vacancies, pushing many graduates to settle for blue-collar jobs or gig work.

Chinese universities are drastically increasing tuition fees this year, with some making their first rises in two decades, hurt by a reduced national budget for tertiary education and tight local government finances, reports Reuters. The higher fees come amid a financial crunch among local governments after three years of disruptive COVID-19 policies, a property crisis and a sluggish economy. Chinese universities, almost all public, rely heavily on state funding.

Shanghai-based East China University of Science and Technology raised tuition fees by 54% to RMB 7,700 ($1,082) annually for some freshmen majoring in science, engineering and physical education, and by 30% in the liberal arts, according to statements issued on Sunday.

Tuition for science and engineering rose by 40% at Shanghai Dianji University, while students majoring in management, economics and literature will have to pay 30% more compared with a year earlier, according to a notice on Monday.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has denied speculation that it is planning mass lay-offs and pledged to hire 15,000 new employees in 2023, after media reports that it is cutting 7% of jobs at its cloud unit, reports the South China Morning Post. Alibaba said its six units are planning to make a total of 15,000 new hires this year including 3,000 fresh graduates, according to a Thursday post on the company’s official account on China’s Twitter-like site Weibo. The firm’s recruitment site is offering thousands of new posts each day, Alibaba said.

In the post, the company said messages circulating on the internet–some of which say the Hangzhou-based company will lay off up to 25% of its workforce across various business units–were “rumours.”

“Each year we see newcomers joining and old colleagues leaving. The movement of talent is what all companies see. At Alibaba, talent is moving in and out normally,” the company said in the post.

LinkedIn, the social media network owned by Microsoft Corp that focuses on business professionals, said on Monday it would cut 716 jobs as part of broader changes that would also result in it phasing out its local jobs app in China, reports Reuters. In a letter to employees, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said the move to cut roles in its sales, operations and support teams was aimed at streamlining the company’s operations.

“With the market and customer demand fluctuating more, and to serve emerging and growth markets more effectively, we are expanding the use of vendors,” Roslansky wrote. “We are also removing layers, reducing management roles and broadening responsibilities to make decisions more quickly.”

Roslansky also said in the letter that the changes would result in creating 250 new jobs. A LinkedIn spokesperson said that employees affected by the cuts would be eligible to apply for those roles.

China is launching an annual recruitment of college graduates in large and midsize cities, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday, as authorities double down on efforts to meet a more ambitious job creation goal this year, reports Reuters. The recruitment drive, hosted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, will last from Sunday to May 26, Xinhua said.

China aims to create around 12 million urban jobs this year, up from the 2022 target of at least 11 million. The government aims to keep survey-based jobless rate of around 5.5% this year. The new premier, Li Qiang, said last week that “developing the economy is the fundamental solution for creating jobs,” and the government will continue to pursue an “employment-first” strategy.

During the first 10 days of the recruitment drive, 19 offline job fairs, eight cross-region job fairs and job fairs featuring sectors such as manufacturing, medicine and health, Internet and electricity and new energy will be hosted, Xinhua said.