China exceeds 2009 goal of 9m new jobs

Sunday, December 13, 2009
BEIJING: Some 9.4 million jobs were created in China’s cities during the first ten months of the year, exceeding the goal of nine million for the entire year state media said Saturday.

According to government figures, the active population at the end of 2008 numbered just over 792 million, most of whom were in work.

The unemployment rate among urban-dwellers was 4.2 percent, against 4.0 percent at the end of 2007. But it jumped to 4.3 percent in the first three months of 2009 due to the global financial crisis.

Experts consider Chinese unemployment statistics often to be underestimated, especially since they do not include migrant workers and recent graduates.

In a note published Wednesday, however, Standard Chartered bank said: “The employment situation among Chinas rural migrant labour force seems to have improved significantly as a result of the government’s huge stimulus package.”

Li Wei, an analyst at the bank, said the unemployment rate for rural migrants fell from around 15 percent at the end of the first quarter of this year to less than three percent by the end of the second quarter, citing China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Migrant workers felt the full force of the downturn as China’s exports fell and factories closed.