Employment in China was generally stable in 2022, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

The number of people employed in urban areas last year total 12.06 million, which exceeded the government’s goal of 11 million, data showed, even as the country faced downward pressure from its zero-Covid policy.

The unemployment rate in urban areas fell to 5.5% in December 2022 which is 0.2% lower than the previous month. Unemployment was high among 16- to 24-year-olds at 16.7%, but still lower by 0.4% from the previous month. Unemployment for those 25 to 59, which makes up the majority of the labour market, declined by 0.2% last month, to 4.8%.

Meanwhile, the urban surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was at 6.1%, which fell by 0.6% from the previous month. According to the Bureau, employees of enterprises worked an average of 47.9 hours per week. Also in 2022, the number of rural migrant workers totaled 295.62 million or 3.11 million more than in 2021.

The Bureau said its service sector sustained recovery in 2022 as the value added of services went up by 2.3%. More specifically, value-added services related to information technology, software, and information transmission grew by 9.1%, and by 5.6% in financial services.

Business revenue of service enterprises above the designated size went up by 3.9% in the first 11 months, of which information transmission, software and information was at 8.3%, scientific research and technology services at 8.3%, and health and social services at 8.1%.