Pressure on employment is growing: China

China today acknowledged growing pressure on employment as the registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 per cent despite creation of 3.42 million new jobs in the first quarter of this year.
Employment pressure is increasing as the number of job-seekers has continued to rise, especially among college graduates, Yin Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said today.
The urban unemployment rate from January to March remained unchanged from 4.1 per cent in 2012, and it may contribute to realising this year's target of keeping the unemployment rate at or below 4.6 per cent, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The employment of college graduates has been and will be a focus of government efforts in the coming years, Yin said.
China will see a record-high 6.99 million people graduate from college this year, up 2.8 per cent year-on-year.
The government will provide more internship programmes and vocational training for college students in their senior year and organise more job fairs targeting new graduates, Yin said.
It will also work out more preferential policies to encourage young people to start their own businesses, he said.