China registers stable employment in 2019

BEIJING — China’s job market remained stable in 2019, with all related indicators meeting the annual goals, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

A total of 13.52 million new urban jobs were created last year, exceeding the target of creating over 11 million urban jobs, NBS data showed.

This marked the seventh year in a row for China to create over 13 million urban jobs.

The registered urban unemployment rate stood at 3.62 percent at the end of 2019, well below the government’s annual ceiling of 4.5 percent.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate nationwide stood at 5.2 percent in December. The monthly indicator all reached between 5 percent and 5.3 percent throughout 2019, also below the official ceiling.

China’s migrant worker population grew 0.8 percent to top 290.8 million, while their average monthly income rose 6.5 percent to 3,962 yuan (about $582), NBS data showed.