Urban jobs up despite dip in growth
Print Edition
CHINA’S urban employment population rose by more than 3.4 million in the first quarter of the year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said yesterday.
The increase was slightly higher than the figure in the same period of last year, despite economic growth falling to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2012.
As of the end of March, the registered urban unemployment rate was 4.1 percent, down slightly year on year, ministry spokesman Li Zhong told a press conference.
Li attributed the rise in jobs and low unemployment to three factors: an improved economic structure, simplified administration and pro-employment measures.
The improved structure allows the government to create more jobs for each percentage point of growth, he said.
China’s economy gained 7.4 percent in the first quarter, down from 7.7 percent in the final three months of 2013, but still outpacing market expectations.
The government has vowed to streamline administrative procedures and continue with its reforms to make market entities more dynamic, especially small private firms that account for more than 90 percent of all businesses and are the country’s leading employers, Li said.
The expansion of small companies is the driving force for overall employment growth, he said.
At the annual parliamentary sessions in March, Premier Li Keqiang said the government would create 10 million new jobs this year and keep the registered urban unemployment below 4.6 percent.
The central government also sought to improve the employment situation for rural workers, with 7.3 million jobs created in local enterprises and arrangements made for 6.5 million people to work in other regions, the ministry said.
The country’s migrant laborer population was 269 million last year, of which 54 percent were employed in their home provinces.
In payment terms, governments in nine provincial areas, including Shanghai, Beijing and Chongqing, raised their minimum wage levels by an average of 13.2 percent last year.
Also, as of this year’s Spring Festival, the government had recouped 10.9 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) in delayed wages for 1.5 million migrant workers, Li said.
The gross revenue of the nation’s social insurance funds in the first quarter gained 18.8 percent year on year to 912.1 billion yuan, while gross expenditure grew 18.5 percent to 730.7 billion yuan, Li said.
Pension fund revenue for the period was 63.7 billion yuan, with total expenditure of 39.4 billion yuan, he said.
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