China's jobs market remains stable

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China's jobs market remained stable in June, with the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas standing at 5.1 percent, data showed Monday.

The rate went up 0.1 percentage points from the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China has vowed to create more than 11 million new urban jobs in 2019, and ensure an around-5.5 percent surveyed urban unemployment rate.

NBS spokesperson Mao Shengyong described the overall employment situation in China as "relatively stable," as the country had created 7.37 million new urban jobs in the first half (H1) of 2019, finishing 67 percent of the target for the whole year.

In breakdown, the surveyed urban unemployment rate of population aged between 25-59 came in at 4.6 percent last month, 0.5 percentage points lower than the national rate of surveyed unemployment in urban areas.

The surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities stood at 5 percent in June, unchanged from the previous month.

Also, the number of rural migrant workers rose 1.3 percent year on year to 182.48 million as of the end of the second quarter, up 0.1 percentage points from that registered in the first quarter, the NBS data showed.

China has attached the same importance to its employment-first policy as it has done with proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, said Mao.

To stabilize employment, China has unveiled a raft of measures, including enhancing training on vocational skills and reducing social insurance contributions of employers.

The structural pressure of the jobs market remained, however, as the government needs to cope with the labor laid off by the move of cutting excessive capacity and nearly 8.3 million students graduating from universities this year, Mao noted.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people who have participated in the employment survey in urban areas, including migrant workers in cities.

It was first introduced in 2014 to better reflect the jobs market and serve as a supplement to the registered urban unemployment rate compiled by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.