China’s urban areas saw 12.07 million jobs created

In November, China’s surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.0%, down 0.2 percentage point year-on-year, reported the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

By age, unemployment among those between 16 and 24 reached 14.3% in November, an increase of 0.1 percentage point month-on-month, while that of those aged between 25 and 59 – the bulk of the labour market – was 4.3%, up by the same quantum.

China’s five-year plan aims to add more than 55 million new urban jobs by 2025.

At the same time, the country’s labour force, starting from the next year, is likely to see about 10 million workers retiring every year, which may have an impact on the Chinese economy, said Su Jian, director of the National Center for Economic Research at Peking University at the recent Global Times Annual Forum.

Nevertheless, Fu Linghui, a spokesperson from the NBS said during a recent press conference that China still possessed a vibrant labour force.

Data collected during the seventh national census in 2020 showed that people aged between 16 and 59 stood at 880 million, reflecting the country’s significant working population.

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The population is also growing, with 10 million children born each year. With the implementation of the three-child policy, the age structure of the national population is set to gradually improve, promoting long-term balanced development, Fu said, according to Global Times.