The media yesterday called for an urgent solution to the country's pressing unemployment problem.
China Daily signalled the authorities' mounting fears by saying the mainland had reached a critical point and a solution had to be found quickly.
Massive lay-offs have sparked a wave of sporadic unrest across the country.
Market reforms aimed at restructuring the state sector are resulting in millions of workers being laid off.
'Official statistics show the unemployment rate has hit 3.1 per cent in China's urban areas, but the figure excludes unregistered unemployed workers such as 10 million people laid off by debt-ridden state-owned enterprises,' a China Daily editorial said.
'The country should maintain the unemployment rate at less than five per cent between now and 2000, a level which some consider alarming for a developing country,' it added.
However, government analysts have said the real urban unemployment rate could be more than 7.5 per cent.