Surveyed unemployment rate long overdue

THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS will release a surveyed unemployment rate next year, Sheng Laiyun, the bureau's chief economist, told Xinhua News Agency recently. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Wednesday:

The human resources and social security authorities have published the registered unemployment rate in cities since the planned economy era, when it was difficult for farmers to move to cities.

The registered unemployment rate should have been replaced a long time ago by the more objective surveyed unemployment rate, since it is estimated that about 300 million migrant workers live and work in cities nowadays.

Because migrant workers are more vulnerable to unemployment issues than permanent residents in cities, who enjoy better welfare and public services that are associated with their hukou, or household registration, an accurate unemployment rate that includes the migrant worker population is of great importance, as they are expected to become the main beneficiaries of the government's job-creation policies.

The statistics departments should be vigilant of local governments intervening or seeking to influence the results of the survey, because there will probably be an obvious gap between the surveyed rate in a city and its former registered unemployment rate.

Also unemployment should be clearly defined to avoid classifying the jobless or those who are job hunting as self-employed, as some colleges do while surveying their graduates before reporting the figures.

The statistics department should also seek to determine the main causes of unemployment.