China Unemployment Rate

China’s surveyed unemployment rate edged down to 5.2% in March 2024, down from 5.3% in the previous month, in line with market expectations. The jobless rate among residents registered locally was 5.3%, while among those with non-local registration, it stood at 5.1%, of which the non-local agricultural registrants had a rate of 5.0%. In 31 major cities, the urban unemployment rate was 5.1%. On average, employees in enterprises worked 48.6 hours per week. By the end of the first quarter, the count of rural migrant workers reached 185.9 million, marking a 2.2% year-on-year increase. Considering the January to March, the urban surveyed jobless rate averaged 5.2%, down by 0.3 percentage points over the same period last year.