More People Employed in ChinaFollowing are the facts and figures about the employment situation in China in the Ninth Five-year Plan period (1996-2000), provided by the State Development Planning Commission.China's employed population totaled 705.86 million in 1999, 26.39 million more than in 1995, and 27.43 million people were newly employed workers in other sectors rather than agriculture. More than 11 million laid-off workers in state-owned enterprises were re-employed from 1998 to 1999. Labors working in the agricultural sector were 1.04 million less than in the previous period, and about 50 million rural residents found jobs in cities or rural towns. Employees in the service sector accounted for 26.9 percent of the total in 1999, up 2.1 percentage points from the 1995 figure. Employees in private enterprises topped 34.67 million in 1999, 16.5 percent of the total employed population, a rise 6 percentage points over 1995. China had 5.75 million unemployed people in urban areas by the end of 1999 with an unemployment rate of 3.1 percent. |
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