CHINA TOPIX

11/22/2024 01:00:28 am

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China Adds 4.43 Million Jobs in Jan-April Period

China Employment

Workers maintain the production line at the Zhong Tian (Zenith) Steel Group Corporation on May 12, 2016 in Changzhou, Jiangsu. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Despite economic headwinds, China added about 4.43 million jobs from January to April of this year, in line with the Chinese government's target of creating more than 10 million new urban jobs in 2016.

An official at the ministry of human resources and social security told reporters that China's job market indicators have stayed within a reasonable range, despite a series of weak economic data.

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"The job market has remained basically stable," said Vice Minister Xin Changxing at a press conference in Beijing.

Xin added that skills positions, with experience of sophisticated techniques increased during the first four months of the year while demand from labor-intensive industries decreased.

The Chinese government has considered creating more jobs as a top government priority as millions of current workers stand to lose their jobs due to redundancy caused by mergers and acquisitions.

The latest employment data serves as a breather for the series of data that showed China's economy continues to experience a slowdown.

Analysts were also concern that fewer jobs could be created in the country as more Chinese enterprises and investors look abroad for their expansion plans due to the slowdown in the domestic market.

Earlier, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called for more efforts to ensure that college graduates will get employment and that their opportunities will not be lowered.

Li instructed local authorities to make employment a serious task in light of downward pressure on the economy.

In an instruction to a teleconference on the issue of job creation for college graduates, Li said support policies to widen employment channels should be improved, and reforms should be deepened to clear obstacles for graduates in starting businesses.

Official government data showed that the country's registered unemployment rate stood at 4.04 percent in urban areas at the end of the first quarter. The rate was lower than the 4.05 at the end of last year.

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