The National Bureau of Statistics' surveyed unemployment rate for urban areas, published monthly since 2018 in the national economy release and read from its text. The threshold is the Sahm construction used for the euro area: the monthly rate half a point above its low of the past twelve months. Added in September 2026 after an outside review; until then the site said China published no comparable monthly rate, which was wrong.

Threshold source: worldstat.us construction after the Sahm rule: the monthly rate against its twelve-month low, as for the euro area. How thresholds are chosen

The rate moves in a narrow band, 5.0 to 5.6 % in most months since 2018, and rose above 6 % only in February 2020 and April 2022, so the trigger fires rarely and late. It covers urban residents only; migrant workers who return to the countryside leave the count. The youth rate was suspended and redefined in 2023. Read from the text of a monthly web release. January is never published on its own: the March release covers the first two months and gives February's rate.