China Unemployment Rate

China’s surveyed unemployment rate inched down to 5% in May 2025, slightly below both market forecasts and April’s figure of 5.1%. This marked the lowest level since November 2024. The jobless rate among the locally registered labor force was 5%, while the rate for the non-locally registered labor force also stood at 5%. Within the latter group, individuals with non-local agricultural household registration saw a jobless rate of 4.9%. Across 31 major cities, the urban surveyed unemployment rate also came in at 5%, down 0.1 percentage points from the prior month. Meanwhile, the average weekly working hours for employees in enterprises nationwide reached 48.5 hours. For the first five months of the year, the national urban surveyed unemployment rate averaged 5.2%.