Number of employed persons in China 2019-2023, by work unit

The graph shows rural and urban employment figures in China by work unit. In 2023, approximately 740 million people were employed in China, of which 470.32 million were urban employees and 270.09 rural. In 2019, of the urban employees, about 171.6 million people were employed in non-private organizations, such as limited liability corporations, state-owned units, and share-holding corporations, while about 145.7 million were employed in private work units and 116.9 million were self-employed. Of the rural employees, about 82.7 million were employed in private enterprises and 60 million were self-employed.

Since 2019, figures on private sector employment in China have not been published by public sources anymore. Numbers for people employed in private units and self-employed in 2019 may therefore still be used as reference.