What is China’s unemployment rate? State survey says it’s falling, private survey disagrees
- A private sector survey shows worrying signs in country’s job market, but an official indicator gives a rosy picture
- Employment a top priority for Beijing in handling trade war
A pair of surveys this week showed very different snapshots of China’s job market, with an official one showing a falling unemployment rate and a private one indicating deep troubles.
It comes at a time of growing concerns over whether China’s economic slowdown during the trade war with the US will translate into serious job losses.
China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Wednesday that the urban registered jobless rate, which measures only urban residents who register with the government as unemployed, fell to 3.82 per cent at the end of September, from 3.83 per cent at the end of June.
Ministry spokesman Lu Aihong said demand for labour “remained stable” in the third quarter.
However, a private survey released a day before the official data showed a different picture.
Both job openings and applicants shrank significantly in China in the third quarter, according to a survey conducted by Zhaopin, a major Chinese online job agency, and an institute at Renmin University of China, painting a gloomy picture of employment in the world’s second-biggest economy.