In good times and bad, China’s official unemployment rate has barely budged. It’s now at 4.1% where it has been since the third quarter of 2010. It has hovered around the 4% level since 2002 (though it plummeted all the way down to 3.6% in 2001).
It’s not much use to anybody, particularly those who are looking for policies that might create jobs. But it may be that Beijing is getting tired of the charade. Now it wants to do things a little differently.
According to Yin Weimin, minister of Human Resources and Social Security, Beijing is conducting trial surveys of the labor situation that cover a broader segment of the population.
Urban unemployment data now cover only those with an urban residence permit. That means the legions of migrant workers, who form the backbone of the labor force, aren’t counted in the overall tally. The calculations by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security also fail to capture urban residents who may not be working but are getting benefits from their former employer.
The Beijing News quoted Mr. Yin as saying that experimental “sample surveys” – which presumably select people at random, rather than just those who have urban resident permits — have been under way for some time in several parts of the country. They are also more in line with international practice and will be rolled out on a broader scale at an “appropriate time.”
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor
via New Job for China’s Numbers Crunchers: Finding Better Jobs Data – Wall Street Journal – WSJ.com.
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