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New jobs in cities top 10m for the first time

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Number of urban positions created beats Beijing's target

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China's new entrants to the urban workforce in the first 11 months have exceeded the government's job creation target by 20 per cent, underscoring the severity of the unemployment problem and further exerting pressure on authorities to bridge the widening gap.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has recorded a total of 10.8 million newly employed people in cities between January and last month. The official job creation target for the entire year was 9 million, Xinhua reported yesterday.

This is also the first time that the number of new urban jobs available in a year topped the 10 million mark, with 80 per cent of the volume accounted for by the private sector.

The increase in new jobs, however, falls short of a projected demand of 21.5 million this year by National Development and Reform Commission official Yang Yiyong in a China Business News report at the end of last year. The discrepancy - despite double-digit economic growth - has also been reflected by the throngs of university students and graduates who flocked to job fairs in the past year.

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Officials estimate there will be 5 million university graduates next year, 1 million more than this year.

The 2007 Economy Bluebook published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences earlier this month projected that the number of job seekers in urban areas would exceed 25 million next year, including 8.7 million school leavers and 5 million laid-off state workers. A further 3.6 million employees of state enterprises would lose their jobs in the next three years due to closures.

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