Guangzhou, capital of economically-developed Guangdong
Province in south China, registered an unemployment rate of
2.42 percent last year, a drop of 1.15 percent year-on-year, a
local labor and social security official said in Guangzhou
Thursday.
The registered number of jobless people was 67,700 in the city
at the end of last year, a year on year decrease of 30.2 percent
and the smallest number in the past five years.
Zhang Jieming, head of the city labor and social security
bureau, told a news conference hosted by the city government that
the city created 310,000 new jobs last year, much more than the
targeted 200,000.
The new employees included 164,800 jobless and about 80,000 new
laborers, which include recent college graduates and more than
50,000 farmers turned urban employees.
Zhang said that 1,739 of the city's 1,824 "zero employment"
households each had at least one family member to find employment
by the end of last year.
(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2005)