China's economy may soon have reliable data on jobs

Beijing

CHINA's statistics authority is seeking to improve its employment data as Premier Li Keqiang pushes for a better reading of the world's largest labour market.

Starting in July, some 15,000 surveyors will fan out across China each month with iPad-like devices to visit households and send responses directly back to the capital, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Beijing said in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg. The bureau will publish the complete data "as soon as possible", without specifying when a regular monthly series may start.