China's job market continues to grow, with more job vacancies and job seekers reported from July to September.

There were 3.8 million posts listed in 115 cities across China for 4 million job seekers, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said in a report released Thursday.

Vacancies and seekers increased by 46 percent and 37 percent respectively on the same period last year.

The 115 cities included in the report have a total population of 164 million, more than 63 percent of China's urban population, and 61.9 million employees.

On average, each 100 job seekers competed for 94 job vacancies. This measure varied from 111 vacancies in East China to 77 in Central China.

The highest demand for workers were in social services, manufacturing and trade and catering. These fields accounted for 72.4 percent of all job vacancies.

Demand from the manufacturing industry increased by 1.8 percentage points on the second quarter.

The country's registered urban unemployed population reached 8.2 million by the end of September; 160,000 less than at the end of the second quarter.

The registered urban unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in the third quarter, down 0.1 percent on second quarter.

Local labor and social security departments have launched a series of campaigns in the past few months to help unemployed people find jobs or start their own businesses.

(China Daily October 29, 2004)