China Unemployment Rate

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.1 percent in August, unchanged from July's three-month high. The jobless rate of the population aged 16-24 fell to 15.3 percent from 16.2 percent in July. Meantime, the surveyed unemployment rate in 31 large cities and towns edged up to 5.3 percent from 5.2 percent in the prior month. The average weekly working hours of employees in enterprises across the country was 47.5 hours, a decrease of 0.2 hours from July. In the first eight months of the year, 9.38 million new jobs were created in cities and towns across the country, completing 85.3 percent of the annual target. China has set a target of creating 11 million new urban jobs and a surveyed urban unemployment rate of 5.5 percent for this year.