Unemployment rate counts and it should be disclosed

It is necessary for the government to obtain and disclose the actual unemployment rate, said an article in the Southern Metropolis Daily (excerpts below).

Premier Li Keqiang said in an article published in the Financial Times that the unemployment rate in the first half of 2013 is 5 percent and it, along with economic growth and inflation, are within a rational and controllable scale.

This is the first time in recent years that the government has revealed the unemployment rate. Although the social security authorities disclose the "registered jobless rate of urban areas" regularly, the rate has been widely questioned by experts. This is because it does not cover the migrant worker population and it does not classify laid-off workers, whose employers only pay their pension and medical care.

That's why the rate was 3.1 percent from 1998 to 2000 when hundreds of thousands of workers were laid off and even in 2008, at the climax of the global financial crisis, the rate was kept comfortably below 5 percent.

Such a figure looks reassuring. But it is of little value for decision-makers assessing the economic situation and adjusting relevant policies. The labor market, and employment, are more complicated than in Western countries.

Reportedly, the government started collecting data on the unemployment rate from 2005. But the statistics are only accessible to some ministries. Li's article was a milestone.

It is expected that the government can conduct a thorough survey of the unemployment rate in China according to international conventions and reveal findings closer to the real picture of the job market.