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China is aiming to limit registered unemployment rates in urban areas to 4.5 percent this year as part of its long-term employment policy, said State Development Planning Commission Vice-Minister Wang Chunzheng Tuesday.
In a report on the national economy and social development to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China, Wang said unemployment was a major challenge to the Chinese economy.
Official figures show the rate of urban unemployed remained within four percent in the first half of this year.
Meanwhile, the number of workers laid off from state-owned enterprises was 4.64 million at the end of June, down by 510,000 from the end of 2001. The monthly average figure of registered unemployed was 3.48 million.
Wang said the rising number of new workers and unemployed outweighed the number of new jobs.
He said China would pay special attention to the resettlement of workers laid-off from bankrupt military factories, over-exploited coal and nonferrous metal mines.
The government would make great efforts to develop the labor-intensive service industries, such as catering and tourism, concentrate on training programs and offer job aid for the unemployed with special difficulties.
(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2002)
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