China creates over 66m urban jobs in 5 years

Published: February 12, 2018 14:17:44 | Updated: February 14, 2018 12:01:17

Job seekers fill in application forms during a job fair at Shanghai Stadium February 4, 2012. Reuters/File Photo

China created more than 66 million urban jobs over the past five years, official data showed.

Over the five years, 90 per cent of college graduates found jobs and more than 1.1 million redundant workers resulting from the country's excess production capacity cuts were re-employed, said Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security.

By the end of 2017, the unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 3.9 per cent, the lowest since 2002, official data showed.

From 2013 to 2017, more than 13 million jobs were created each year in urban areas, despite the negative effect of economic structuring and slowing growth, official data showed.

In 2017, 13.51 million new jobs were created in urban areas. The central government set an increase of 11 million jobs as its official target for the whole of 2017.

To ensure stable employment, China has rolled out an array of pro-employment policies for graduates, redundant workers, the disabled and migrant workers,

Yin said China will continue implementing and improving employment and entrepreneurial policies to create more jobs in 2018.