This photo taken on March 18, 2023 shows a view of a job fair in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. More than 500 on-line and off-line recruiting events have been scheduled during this job fair, the largest of its kind in recent years held in the province, offering over 115,000 vacant positions in total. (Photo:Xinhua)

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2 percent in August, representing a 0.1 percentage point drop from July, as the job market continues to improve and the economy continues to recover, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.

The employment situation continued to improve in August, and the surveyed urban unemployment rate for August came in at lower than that of the same period last year and remained on par with the same period in 2019, said Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the NBS.

Fu noted that key groups, including the youth population and migrant workers, have shown improvement in securing employment in August. “Based on our research and data from various departments, the employment situation for young people in August has shown significant improvement, indicating that the effects of employment policies are gradually taking effect,” Fu said.

China has suspended the publication of youth jobless data starting from August, as labor market statistics work needs improvement amid ongoing economic and social adjustment.

Fu said that the NBS is conducting an in-depth study to better reflect the country's employment situation and will promptly release this data should there be any new developments.

According to Fu, the unemployment rate for migrant workers in the agricultural sector fell by 0.4 percentage points to 4.4 percent in August, a relatively low level this year as a result of accelerating recovery in China’s wholesale and retail trade, accommodation, food and beverage services, and transportation and logistics industries, in which a large number of migrant workers are employed.

The urban unemployment rate in 31 major cities also dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 5.3 percent. Fu noted that China’s overall job market remains stable thanks to the stable economic recovery, in particular the recovery of the service sector.

In August, the national service industry production index increased by 6.8 percent year-on-year, accelerating by 1.1 percentage points compared to the previous month.

Global Times