HAIKU, China, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- China's urban jobless rate has declined just .1 percent from last year even though more than 10 million urbanites found work so far this year.
Labor and Social Security Vice Minister Zhang Xiaojian said that by creating more than 10 million jobs in the country's urban areas, employment has remained stable for most of 2007, China's official Xinhua news agency reported Saturday.
"(The) employment situation in China has been stable this year, with the first 10 months completing 113 percent of the 9 million-job target set for the whole year," Zhang said.
Zhang said that at the end of September, the urban unemployment rate sat at 4 percent, a decrease from last year's 4.1 percent, and 95.7 percent of China's "zero employment" families now had at least one employed member.
The labor official did warn that the increasing number of college graduates could potentially pose an employment dilemma in the future, along with increased migration into China's urban areas.
Xinhua said 11.84 million urban residents in China garnered new jobs in 2006, the first time the country surpassed 10 million in a single year.
