The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has yet to release the third-quarter survey results.
A smaller sample collected by the Hebei provincial branch of PBOC, released at the end of October, also reflected weak confidence in the job market.
The employment sentiment index in the third-quarter survey of 800 depositors fell by 4.2 percentage points from the previous quarter to 38.5 per cent. Almost 46 per cent of respondents reported “so-so” on job hunting.
What are the limitations of China’s official job data?
There have always been questions over the reliability on China’s job market data, particularly its ability to assess employment conditions.
In 2018, the government introduced the urban surveyed unemployment rate, which covers migrant workers in cities and people with urban household registration living in rural areas.
But it still does not include rural migrant workers who have returned to the countryside after losing or quitting their jobs in cities and towns.
There have always been questions over the reliability of China’s job market data, particularly its ability to assess employment conditions.
Unemployment rose significantly during the coronavirus pandemic, but the official jobless data remained relatively unaffected.
According to the NBS, a person is unemployed if they do not have a job, but are actively looking for work and could start immediately.
A person is considered employed as long as they have undertaken more than one hour of paid work in a week, including those who receive wages while on holiday or have been made redundant.
Source: CNA
