Some 790,000 people, or 11.1 percent of the total number of laid-off workers from China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs), got new jobs in the first half of the year, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
The figure is 4.9 percent lower than that of the same period last year. An official analysis reveals that a stringent re-employment pressure is expected in the second half of the year due to an upcoming lay-off climax.
But the total population of laid-off workers dropped slightly in the first six months of the year.
There were altogether 7.69 million SOE laid-off workers during the January-June period, and the population decreased to 6.32 million at the end of June, about 450,000 less compared with the same period last year.
(Xinhua News Agency 07/28/2001)
