China end-Sept urban jobless rate steady at 4.1pc

BEIJING: China's urban jobless rate, the country's only official measure of unemployment, was steady at 4.1 percent at the end of the third quarter, unchanged from three months earlier, the labour ministry said on Tuesday.

But the rate was down 0.2 percentage points compared with the same period a year ago.

Yin Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, also said that China had created new jobs for 9.94 million people in urban areas in the first nine months of the year, topping the full-year target of 9 million.

He also told a news conference that 21 provinces in the country had increased minimum wages by an average 21.7 percent at the end of Q3, compared with a year earlier.

The ministry vowed it would continue to help university graduates to cope with the tightening labour market and step up efforts to protect rural migrant workers' legal interests and solve labour disputes.

Beijing's sensitivity to social stability keeps a strong focus on creating jobs each year for millions of China's university students and rural migrant workers.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said last week that China would make job creation a more urgent priority in the face of slower economic growth and weakening exports.

The urban jobless rate only measures a small part of China's labour market as it excludes farmers and migrant workers, including tens of millions of individuals who have migrated to cities from China's vast countryside to earn a living.

Registered urban jobless rate in China: Sep11 Jun11 Mar11 Dec10 Sep10 Jun10 Mar10 Dec09 Sep09 Jun09

4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.2 4.2 4.3 4.3 4.3.