China's urban unemployment rate at 5% for June

China's surveyed urban unemployment rate edged down to 5.0 percent in June from 5.1 percent in May, official data showed on Wednesday.

The average jobless rate for the first half of 2026 stood at 5.2 percent, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. The government has set a full-year target of around 5.5 percent for 2026.

NBS deputy head Mao Shengyong told a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office that the unemployment rate for workers with local household registration stood at 5.0 percent in June, while the rate for migrant workers was 4.9 percent. Among migrant workers from rural areas, the rate was 4.8 percent.

In China's 31 major cities, the surveyed unemployment rate also stood at 5.0 percent, down 0.1 of a percentage point from the previous month.

The average weekly working hours for employees of enterprises stood at 48.2 hours in June.

By the end of the second quarter, the total number of rural migrant workers working outside their hometowns reached 192.27 million, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier.

The NBS had previously reported that the surveyed urban unemployment rate averaged 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2026.