China plans to create 45 mn jobs

Asia Bulletin (IANS) Wednesday 8th February, 2012

China Wednesday put forth a plan to boost employment during the 2011-15 period, which aims to create 45 million jobs and keep the registered urban unemployment rate within 5 percent.

Authorities will work to spur employment while improving employment structure and further perfecting regulations and related mechanism to protect workers' rights and benefits, according to the plan.

From 2006 to 2010, 57.71 million new jobs were created in urban areas and 45 million people in the rural surplus labour force were transferred to new job positions, official data shows.

By the end of 2011, China's urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent, the same as a year earlier, reported Xinhua.

China's job market conditions will be "complicated" in the 2011-15 period, and the country faces increasing pressure from creating more job opportunities, according to the plan.

The country also plans to create jobs for 40 million people in the rural surplus labour force in the five-year period.

China has managed to raise its minimum wage standards by an average of 12.5 percent year-on-year during the 2006-10 period.