A total of 9.32 million urban Chinese found employment in the first nine months of the year, exceeding the 9 million target for the whole year, said the Ministry of Labor and Social Security Thursday.

This is the first time in recent years that China has met its yearly target three months ahead of time.

Government support and guidance are key factors in the achievement, said Zhou Tianyong, deputy director of the Research Office of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

About 3.92 million of the people finding new jobs were laid-off workers and another 990,000 people belonged to the "40-50 group", referring to men aged 50 or higher and women older than 40.

The rest are graduates from vocational schools and institutions of higher learning, migrant rural laborers and others.
The ministry said there are still 8.35 million urban residents on the dole, with the official unemployment rate standing at 4.1 percent, 0.1 percentage points down from the first half of the year.

With an estimated 10 million urban Chinese joining the labor force each year, and 14 million laid-off workers hunting for jobs, China still faces huge employment pressure.

To encourage enterprises to employ laid-off workers, the central government will provide 25.1 billion yuan (3.1 billion U.S. dollars) of subsidies this year, 4.2 billion yuan more than last year.

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