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Jump in jobless urban registration
Source: Xinhua |
January 21, 2009, Wednesday
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Print Edition
CHINA'S urban unemployment rate was 4.2 percent at the end of 2008, up 0.2 percentage points year-on-year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said yesterday.
As of December 31, there were 8.86 million urban residents registered as jobless, up 560,000 from the end of the third quarter, ministry spokesman Yin Chengji told a press conference in Beijing.
Yin said 11.13 million urban jobs were created last year, 11 percent above the government target.
The slight rise in the jobless rate reflected a slowing economy amid the global financial crisis, said Tang Min, deputy secretary of the China Development Research Foundation.
"The figure looks all right, but the real situation could be much more serious, as migrant workers and newly graduated college students were not included in the government count," said Tang.
Yuan Gangming of the Center for China in the World Economy of Tsinghua University described the rate as a "sudden rise." He said the 2008 figure was a reversal of the recent years' declines.
The urban jobless rate fell for five consecutive years, from a high of 4.3 percent in 2003 to 4 percent in 2007.
"The 4.2 percent rate was already a sharp increase, given that widespread job cuts only surfaced in the second half of last year," Yuan said.
"The unemployment situation is grimmer than shown by the latest figure," he said, noting migrant workers were not included.
Statistics from the ministry showed 10 million migrant workers had returned to their rural homes jobless as of December.
Starting in the second half of 2008, weakening foreign demand has hit companies in the coastal industrial belts where most migrant workers are employed.
Exports fell 2.8 percent year-on-year to US$111.16 billion in December, an acceleration from the decline of 2.2 percent in November.
Yin said China had reacted in an "active and powerful" way to the employment impact of the global financial crisis. China aims to keep its registered jobless rate below 4.6 percent and provide 9 million new urban jobs this year.
Yuan said the urban unemployment figure could worsen in the first half of this year.
As of December 31, there were 8.86 million urban residents registered as jobless, up 560,000 from the end of the third quarter, ministry spokesman Yin Chengji told a press conference in Beijing.
Yin said 11.13 million urban jobs were created last year, 11 percent above the government target.
The slight rise in the jobless rate reflected a slowing economy amid the global financial crisis, said Tang Min, deputy secretary of the China Development Research Foundation.
"The figure looks all right, but the real situation could be much more serious, as migrant workers and newly graduated college students were not included in the government count," said Tang.
Yuan Gangming of the Center for China in the World Economy of Tsinghua University described the rate as a "sudden rise." He said the 2008 figure was a reversal of the recent years' declines.
The urban jobless rate fell for five consecutive years, from a high of 4.3 percent in 2003 to 4 percent in 2007.
"The 4.2 percent rate was already a sharp increase, given that widespread job cuts only surfaced in the second half of last year," Yuan said.
"The unemployment situation is grimmer than shown by the latest figure," he said, noting migrant workers were not included.
Statistics from the ministry showed 10 million migrant workers had returned to their rural homes jobless as of December.
Starting in the second half of 2008, weakening foreign demand has hit companies in the coastal industrial belts where most migrant workers are employed.
Exports fell 2.8 percent year-on-year to US$111.16 billion in December, an acceleration from the decline of 2.2 percent in November.
Yin said China had reacted in an "active and powerful" way to the employment impact of the global financial crisis. China aims to keep its registered jobless rate below 4.6 percent and provide 9 million new urban jobs this year.
Yuan said the urban unemployment figure could worsen in the first half of this year.
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