China sees unemployment remain steady in April

BEIJING - China continued to see the job market remain stable in April, with the unemployment rate at a relatively low level, official data showed Tuesday.

The monthly surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas was 4.9 percent in April, down 0.2 percentage points from March and 0.1 percentage points lower than last April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The urban surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 4.7 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from March, and down 0.2 percentage points year on year.

"China's job market continued to stabilize and improve in April," said NBS spokesperson Liu Aihua.

Starting from April this year, the NBS has regularly released the monthly surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas to help the government improve macro-control and provide information for formulating employment policies.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people who have participated in the employment survey in urban areas, including migrant workers in cities.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate was first introduced in 2014 to better reflect the job market and serve as a supplement to the registered urban unemployment rate compiled by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.