China’s official unemployment rate severely understated, top economist warns
China’s unemployment rate may be more than triple the official figure, according to Yao Yang, dean of Peking University’s National School of Development.
The national unemployment rate was as high as 20%, meaning that up to 100 million people are jobless, Yao said in an interview with Sina Finance on Friday, in response to data from the country’s census authorities the previous day which showed unemployment unchanged at 6%.
China’s economy had seen a significant downturn due to the year-long COVID-19 pandemic, with many small and medium-sized enterprises, especially those in the service industry, forced to shut down, he said.
In an online survey carried out in June, Yao and his team found that 15% of the 6,000 respondents were out of a job and that another 5% were on the brink of losing theirs.
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