Unemployment in China may be reaching a 30-year high, according to Bloomberg:
Registered unemployment rose to 4.2 percent as of Dec. 31, Yin Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said in a transcript of a press briefing in Beijing today. It was 4 percent three months earlier.
A rate as high as the government’s 4.6 percent target for this year, which was announced by Yin today, would be the worst since 1980, official data show. Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday that the government must do more to preserve social stability in the face of a “very grim” job outlook.