Job seekers attend a comprehensive job fair for university graduates and a special recruitment session for elderly care professionals in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province, on July 5, 2025. Photo: VCG

China’s employment remained generally stable, and the urban surveyed unemployment rate dropped slightly. In the first half of the year, the average urban surveyed unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, 0.1 percentage points lower than that in the first quarter. In June, the urban surveyed unemployment rate stood at 5.0 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) told a press conference on Tuesday.

The surveyed unemployment rate for the local household registration population was 5.1 percent, and that for the non-local household registration population was 4.8 percent. Among the non-local household registration population, the surveyed unemployment rate for those with an agricultural household registration was 4.8 percent. The urban surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities stood at 5.0 percent, the NBS said.

These figures are largely in line with expectations and stand as a significant outcome of the steady development of the national economy, Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Another key factor is that during this period, a host of policies supporting employment and entrepreneurship have been rolled out from the central to local governments, which have greatly alleviated employment pressures, particularly for young people, Li said.

China on Wednesday released a document outlining further policy support aimed at stabilizing employment. 

The country will expand the scope of its special-purpose loans designed to stabilize and boost employment, while improving the accessibility of those loans, according to the document.

It notes that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in key sectors that hire individuals from key groups and comply with relevant social insurance requirements will be eligible for subsidies, with the aim of incentivizing job creation. The coverage and implementation scale of work-relief programs, which provide work for people in need as a form of relief, will be expanded, according to the document.

It also states that further efforts will be made to strengthen vocational training and optimize public employment services.

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, as long as China further strengthens employment-first policies, the goal of stabilizing employment will surely be achieved, Li said.

China has set a target for a surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 5.5 percent in 2025 and aims to create over 12 million new urban jobs.

Global Times