Employed persons at year-end
725.04
National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗million persons · 2025
Population, society and living standards · labour market
Employment and unemployment
Employment counts, employment-to-population ratios, labour-force participation and unemployment rates use different denominators. NBS domestic measures, administrative registered unemployment and ILOSTAT modelled estimates remain separate.
Urban employed persons
475.35
million · 65.6% of employed persons
Urban surveyed unemployment, annual average
5.2%
2025 · year-end 5.1%
Surveyed unemployment, age 30–59
4.0%
2025 average · December 3.9%
NBS 2025 employment analysis ↗The NBS urban surveyed rate comes from a labour-force survey, registered unemployment comes from an administrative system, and ILOSTAT values are international modelled estimates. Annual averages and year-end snapshots are also different period concepts. Missing years remain missing.
Official domestic employment counts
National and urban employed persons, 2017–2025
The 2020 communique did not separately publish population and employed-person data during the seventh population census. The gap is visible and not interpolated.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · NBS annual communiques; 2020 employment counts were not published and remain blankchinainfigures.com
Official domestic unemployment measures
Surveyed and registered unemployment shown separately
Survey measures use solid lines and the administrative registered rate uses a dashed line. Annual averages and year-end snapshots remain separate; unpublished years are never zero-filled.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · Survey, registration and period concepts must not be splicedchinainfigures.com
Youth and age-group method break
New age-group publication method introduced in 2024
The first published values refer to December 2023. Ages 16–24 and 25–29 exclude students, so they cannot be connected to the earlier youth series or the ILO age 15–24 modelled series.
Age 16–24, excluding students
14.9%
December 2023
Age 25–29, excluding students
6.1%
December 2023
Age 30–59
3.9%
December 2023
ILOSTAT internationally comparable modelled estimates
Ten economies, 1991–2025
All four metrics cover 35 complete years for ten economies, but no animated ranking is used: unemployment, employment-to-population and participation have different denominators, directions and interpretations.
Lower unemployment is generally preferable, but country differences can reflect labour-market institutions and model inputs.
Source: International Labour Organization — ILOSTAT ↗ · ILOSTAT November 2025 modelled estimates; 1991–2025 only, with 2026–2027 projections excluded; never spliced to NBSchinainfigures.com
2025 data table
Unemployment rate, age 15+
| Economy | 2025 value | Scope |
|---|
Employment count
Not an employment rate
The 725.04 million figure is a year-end count. The employment-to-population ratio uses the population aged 15+ as its denominator.
Labour-force participation
Includes employed and unemployed people
Participation measures the labour force as a share of working-age population. Education, retirement and demographics all affect it.
Missing values
Blank does not mean zero
The 2020 employment count and unpublished registered-rate years remain blank: no interpolation, carry-forward or ILO substitution.
Downloads and revisions
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Includes registered formal points, available historical series and scalar derived metrics. UTF-8 encoded for spreadsheets and analysis tools.
Download CSV ↓Data file updated: 30 Jul 2026
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Employment and unemployment indicator published
Published separate NBS employment, surveyed and registered unemployment series plus four ILOSTAT modelled international series. NBS and ILO series remain explicitly non-spliceable, the 2020 employment gap remains visible, and future ILOSTAT projection rows are excluded.
Related sources: International Labour Organization ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗ · National Bureau of Statistics of China ↗
Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed
Data downloads and revision timeline added
Added page-level formal-data CSV files, chart-level CSV/PNG/SVG exports and a bilingual revision timeline to all indicator pages.
Sources and definitions registered; automated checks passed