Roughly 5 million people in China lost their jobs in the first 2 months of the year

CNBC reports that roughly 5 million people in China lost their jobs amid the outbreak of the new coronavirus in the first two months of this year, data published Monday indicate.

China's official, but highly doubted, urban unemployment rate jumped to its highest on record in February at 6.2%, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That's up from 5.3% in January and 5.2% in December.

As of the end of last year, 442.47 million people were employed in urban areas, government data show, indicating that at least 4.67 million people have since lost their jobs, based on official figures.

China's unemployment data have been among the most highly doubted, even after the country changed its methodology from worker claims to a survey in 2018 in an effort to capture more of the job losses. The urban unemployment rate has hovered near 4% to 5% for the last 20 years.

That makes a jump to 6.2% particularly notable. Mao Shengyong, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, emphasized during a press conference Monday that the unemployment rate will likely fall in the second half of the year as businesses resume work.