China’s unemployment insurance payouts hit a record high in June, adding to signs of a struggling labour market as the economy has been badly hit by COVID-19 outbreaks and a property crisis. Payments by China’s unemployment insurance fund rose 256.6% in June from a year earlier to 37.19 billion yuan ($5.42 billion), according to Reuters’ calculations based on data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. That was the highest since the data series began in January 2013. The sharp rise in the payouts resulted in a deficit of 22.74 billion yuan in the fund in June, widening from a 4.91 billion yuan ... (full story)