China creates 10.57 million new urban jobs in first three quarters, hitting 88 percent of annual target

This photo taken on Sept. 26, 2025 shows a scene at an autumn campus job fair for Shanghai university graduates at the Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)

China’s employment remained broadly stable in the first three quarters this year, with 10.57 million new urban jobs created, achieving 88 percent of the annual target and outpacing the level in the same period last year, data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security showed.

Through a strengthened mechanism to promote employment, including targeted support for key groups and measures to stabilize and expand job postions, China has ensured generally steady labor-market performance.

In the January-September period, China disbursed 19.6 billion yuan ($2.69 billion) in job-stabilizing refunds and 16.6 billion yuan in subsidies for training programs.

In addition, one-off hiring subsidies worth 900 million yuan were granted to 140,000 enterprises, benefiting 600,000 young people including fresh graduates, the report said. And, China’s social-security coverage has kept pace with employment growth.

As of end-September, 1.074 billion people were covered by basic pension insurance, 248 million by unemployment insurance and 304 million by work-injury insurance.

A total of 1.39 billion residents held social-security cards, representing 98.9 percent of the population, including 1.1 billion electronic card-holders.

During the ongoing 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China has reiterated that employment is the top priority for people’s livelihoods. Employment has remained stable overall, with a continued improvement in structure and quality, Xinhua News Agency reported.

By end-August, a total of 59.21 million new urban jobs had been created, exceeding the target of 55 million, while the average surveyed urban unemployment rate over the past four years stood at 5.3 percent, below the control target of 5.5 percent.