Seventh, consumer prices increased mildly, and producer price index expanded more quickly.
In the first three quarters, the consumer price index (CPI) went up by 0.6% year on year, 0.1 percentage point higher than in the first half of this year. Specifically, the CPI in September went up by 0.7% year on year, 0.1 percentage point lower than that in August, and even month on month. In the first three quarters, the CPI rose by 0.7% in urban areas and 0.4% in rural areas. Grouped by categories, in the first three quarters, prices of food, tobacco, and alcohol fell by 0.5% year on year; clothing increased by 0.2%; housing increased by 0.6%; articles of daily use and services increased by 0.2%; transportation and communication increased by 3.3%; education, culture, and recreation increased by 1.6%; medical services and health care increased by 0.3%; and other articles and services fell by 1.6%. Among food, tobacco, and alcohol, the price of pork fell by 28.0%, grain increased by 1.0%, fresh vegetables increased by 1.3%, and fresh fruits increased by 2.7%. In the first three quarters, core CPI, excluding prices of food and energy, went up by 0.7%, an increase of 0.3 percentage point compared with that of the first half of this year.
In the first three quarters, the producer price index (PPI) went up by 6.7%, an increase of 1.6 percent compared with that of the first half of this year. Specifically, the PPI in September went up by 10.7% year on year, or 1.2% month on month. In the first three quarters, the purchasing price index for industrial producers went up by 9.3% year on year, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from the first half of this year. Specifically, the purchasing price index in September went up by 14.3%, or up by 1.1% month on month.
Eighth, employment was basically stable, and the urban surveyed unemployment rate steadily fell.
In the first three quarters, urban areas created 10.45 million new jobs , achieving 95% of this year's target. In September, the urban surveyed unemployment rate was 4.9%, 0.2 percentage point lower than that in August, or 0.5 percentage point lower than that in the same period last year. The surveyed unemployment rate of the population with local household registration was 5%, and that among populations with non-local household registration was 4.8%. The surveyed unemployment rates among populations aged 16 to 24 and 25 to 59 were 14.6% and 4.2%, respectively. The urban surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 5%, 0.3 percentage point lower than that in August. Enterprise employees worked 47.8 hours per week on average, up by 0.3 hours compared with that in August. At the end of the third quarter, migrant workers from rural areas totaled 183.03 million, up by 0.7 million compared with that at the end of the second quarter.
