China will launch comprehensive survey on labor force this year in its four municipalities and more than 20 provincial capitals, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Inspectors across the country will choose people above age of 16 as samples and collect information concerning education, employment status, income, job type, social security, cause of unemployment and so on.

"China is in need of an authorized accurate and timely labor database to help scientific decision making on employment policies," said NBS director Ma Jiantang at a work meeting on labor survey Friday.

At present, the country has unemployment rate released on a quarterly base by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS). However, the data only cover urban residents who has registered their situation to labor departments.

MOHRSS statistics showed registered urban unemployment rate climbed to 4.2 percent at the end of 2008 from 4.0 percent a year earlier.

Analysts believed the actual situation should be much severe considering the 20 million migrant workers who lost their jobs amid economic slowdown and more than 6 million college students waiting in the job market.

The State Council, or the Cabinet, issued a decision in 2004 to set up a national labor survey mechanism covering both urban and rural population in a few years. The NBS has made preparations and conducted trial surveys since then.