I. The data in this chapter show the basic conditions of China's labour economy, including the main data of labour statistics of
the whole country and 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under the direct leadership of the central
government, such as the economically active population, number of the employed persons and staff and workers, number of
persons employed in the urban and rural private enterprises and self-employed persons in industry and commerce, number
of registered unemployed persons in urban areas, total wages and average wages of the staff and workers and the changes
in index, etc.

II. There are three main sources for the data published in this chapter:

 (1) Data on basic conditions of employment (tables 5-1 to 5-14), total wage bill of workers and staff (tables 5-19 to 5-28),
and data on urban employed persons by industry, occupation, education attainment and status of employment and on urban
unemployed persons by cause of unemployment (tables 5-29 to 5-34) are collected and tabulated in accordance with the
Comprehensive Labour Statistics Reporting System, the Programme on the Sample Survey on the Population Changes and
the Rural Social and Economic Survey of the National Bureau of Statistics. They are prepared and provided by the Department
of Population, Social and Science Statistics, NBS.

 (2) Data on the urban registered unemployed persons and on the career services and the exchanges of labour force (tables
5-1 and 5-29) are collected in line with the Statistical Reporting System on Training and Employment and provided by the
Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

(3) Data on the number of persons employed in the urban and rural private enterprises and self-employed persons in
industry and commerce (tables 5-15 to 5-18) are collected through Statistical Reports on Basic Conditions of Urban and Rural
Private Enterprises and Statistical Reports on Basic Conditions of Urban and Rural Individual Industrial and Commercial
Business and provided by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

III. Coverage of statistics and survey methods:

(1) Coverage of statistics: The Comprehensive Labour Statistics Reporting System covers all independent accounting units.
The Programme on the Sample Survey on the Population Changes covers the population of the whole country. The Rural
Social and Economic Survey covers all rural areas below township level in China. The Statistical Reporting System on Training
and Employment covers all urban population of China. The Statistical Reports on Basic Conditions of Urban and Rural Private
Enterprises and on Basic Conditions of Urban and Rural Individual Industrial and Commercial Business cover the whole
society.

  (2) Survey methodology: A complete enumeration and reporting from lower levels to higher levels is used in the Labour
Statistics Reporting System. The annual sample surveys on population changes are conducted with a multi-stage stratified
cluster sampling scheme. Statistics on training, employment, private enterprises and self-employed individuals are collected
compiled on basis of administrative records.

IV. Since 1989, China Labour Statistical Yearbook has been jointly published by the National Bureau of Statistics and  the
Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which provides more detailed data than those in this chapter.