From Reuters:

China will release an unemployment rate next year calculated under a method that could double the figure from levels now reported, according to a report in the official China Daily on Saturday.

China will start to announce unemployment figures derived using the “investigation method” starting in the second half of next year, the paper reported, citing Yu Xiuqin, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

“The unemployment index calculated through investigation will be much bigger than the current urban-registered unemployment rate,” Yu told the newspaper.

“The change was done to follow international practices.”