China will try to keep its urban unemployment rate below five percent between 2006 and 2010 despite mounting pressure from growing labor forces.

Related readings:  Nine million urban Chinese employed Just being a foreigner not a shoo-in for jobs China facing employment crisis with 34.5m new job-seekers Unemployed graduates ashamed to apply for living allowance

In a 2006-2010 development outline, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security pledged to keep the registered unemployment rate in cities and towns below five percent, 0.8 percent higher than at the end of 2005, by creating job channels for an additional 45 million people. They did not give any details about how they would do this.

Millions of other jobs will also have to be created to accommodate the additional 45 million migrant workers who will be encouraged to leave rural areas to reduce the labor force surplus in the countryside.

The world's most populous country of more than 1.3 billion people will continue to be troubled by unemployment in future years, the outline cautioned.

China's labor supply is expected to top 830 million in 2010. In urban regions, 50 million people will join the labor force, not including migrant workers, with a potential shortfall of 10 million job opportunities for urban residents.

Most of the employment pressure stems from laid-off workers from state or collective-owned businesses, an increasing number of college graduates, rural labor transfer and farmers whose land is grabbed.