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In 2024, approximately 11 million people in urban areas of China had been registered as unemployed. That was an increase from 10.7 million in the previous year. 

Unemployment figures in China

Two different sets of unemployment figures exist in China, registered unemployment and surveyed unemployment. Surveyed unemployment figures represent estimates for total unemployment in urban areas based on monthly conducted surveys. In contrast, registered unemployment refers to people in urban areas who are covered by unemployment insurance and have registered their joblessness to receive unemployment payments. As many laborers working in Chinese cities are not covered by unemployment insurance, figures for registered unemployment are always lower than those for surveyed unemployment and do not represent a correct picture of total unemployment.

According to the graph at hand, absolute registered unemployment in urban China has gradually risen over the past decade. This is mainly related to an overall increase of people living and working in Chinese cities. Absolute figures for the total number of unemployed people are not published in China. 

Regional disparities in unemployment

For several decades, unemployment figures in undeveloped western and central regions of China had been higher than those of the developing coastal provinces. This trend has been changing in recent years, as the economic development in many inner regions of China has caught up and labor intensive industries have been moved from the increasingly expensive coastal regions to cheaper locations in inner provinces. This trend has been supported by government efforts to develop the formerly underdeveloped western and central regions. Nevertheless, regional disparities remain, and overall economic conditions are still far from being equal. Nowadays, regional urban unemployment rates in the former center of the Chinese steel and heavy industries in northeastern China are the highest in national comparison, while unemployment in the southern coastal provinces Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan is comparatively low. Interestingly, the official unemployment rate of Beijing was by far the lowest in China, while that of Shanghai was much higher.