China’s unemployment outlays hit record $5.4bn in June

BEIJING — Spending by China’s unemployment insurance system reached a monthly record in June on increased benefits to the jobless and payments to employers that kept workers on the payroll.

Outlays surged to 37.2 billion yuan ($5.45 billion), according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security — 3.6 times the year-earlier figure and the highest since monthly data began being kept in 2013.