Working the numbers adds up for nation

Employment | Cindy Chung and Ben Chow

For decades, China has been using the registered unemployment rate to monitor its labor market. But a recent development has shown that the country is working toward using a new indicator, the surveyed jobless rate, to replace it.

On July 30, the State Council said in a statement that the conditions are ripe to publish and use the surveyed jobless rate. It asked the statistics agency to expand the survey, improve the methodology and publish the rate at a proper time.