Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently ran a report on data published by China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security regarding revenue and expenditure data for the Chinese national unemployment insurance fund.
In the first three months of this year, 244 million people in China drew from the national unemployment insurance fund, an increase of 2.56 million people year-over-year. During the same period, the income and expenditure of the unemployment insurance fund were RMB 49.54 billion yuan (around US$6.87 billion) and RMB 46.5 billion yuan (around US$6.45 billion) respectively. The fund expenditures increased significantly by 22.4 percent, year-over-year.
China paid out RMB 36.54 billion yuan (around US$5.07 billion) in unemployment insurance benefits in the first quarter, up 29.6 percent from last year. Unemployment insurance benefits include unemployment insurance, basic medical insurance premiums, vocational training and job referral subsidies, and other employment promotion expenses. The expenditure of the unemployment insurance fund has increased significantly relative to the number of insured persons and income. The biggest possibility for this increase is that the unemployment rate growth has led to an increase in the number of people receiving unemployment insurance benefits.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao, May 12, 2025
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/finance/china/story20250512-6327319