China’s employment hit 776 million by the end of 2016, surpassing the gross population of Europe, according to statistics by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS), People’s Daily reported on Nov. 7.

Statistics show that a total of 65.24 million jobs were created in China in the past five years. Employment in China has registered steady growth, with some 13 million urban jobs created each year.

Employment in China maintained a rising momentum in the first three quarters this year, said Lu Aihong, a senior MHRSS official, adding that 10.97 million jobs were created during the period, up 300,000 on a year-on-year basis.

The registered urban unemployment rate was 3.95 percent this year, down 0.09 percent compared with the previous year and the lowest level since the global financial crisis in 2008, Lu noted.

However, China must still create 15 million urban jobs each year, He Weida, a professor at the Donlinks School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, pointed out.

He added that there is still a large number of unemployed people and surplus rural labor in China. The contradiction between the capacity of employees and the needs of the employer also needs to be solved.

Lu stressed that China will step up efforts to improve the quality of employment through adopting necessary measures in the future, including providing more quality posts and vocational training, encouraging entrepreneurship, and safeguarding interests and rights of laborers.