College graduates attend a special job fair held in Sanxia University, Central China's Hubei Province on March 14, 2024. About 200 enterprises and public institutions joined the job fair that day, providing more than 7,000 job opportunities. Across China, it is expected that a total of 11.79 million college students will be graduated in 2024, a record high. Photo: VCG

China's employment remains stable in the first two months of 2024, with the urban surveyed unemployment rate averaging at 5.3 percent, official data showed on Monday. 

An official said that the continuous recovery of the economy and emerging industries will provide strong support for job creation this year.

In February, the urban surveyed unemployment rate was 5.3 percent, 0.1 percentage points higher than that of the previous month but 0.3 percentage points lower than that the same period of last year, Liu Aihua, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said at a press conference on Monday.

The employment situation in large Chinese cities also showed improvement, Liu said, noting that the urban surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities stood at 5.1 percent in February, down 0.6 percentage points from last year.

Last month, the surveyed unemployment rate of the population segment of non-agricultural household registration, was 4.8 percent, down 1.2 percentage points on a yearly basis, she said.

Currently, favorable factors for stabilizing the employment market continue to accumulate, Liu noted. Along with the sustained recovery of the Chinese economy, especially the services sector, and the accelerated transition of new and old growth momentums, new industries including digital economy, green economy and silver economy will continue to provide support for urban employment.

On the other hand, a series of policies to prioritize job creation, including fiscal and financial policies will also offer favorable conditions for stabilizing and expanding employment, Liu said.

However, "we should be aware that the pressure on aggregate job creation is likely to linger, with the related structural issues becoming more pronounced," Liu said, urging greater effort across the society to create as many jobs as possible. 
During the recently concluded two sessions, China's central government set a target of creating more than 12 million urban jobs in 2024, curbing the  surveyed urban unemployment rate at about 5.5 percent.

As companies and localities increased the intensity of hiring in the first quarter, the Chinese job market gradually heated up.

According to a report that Chinese job-hunting platform Zhilian Zhaopin sent to the Global Times on Monday, the continuous release of hiring demand in the four weeks following the Spring Festival is steadily warming up the job market.

Small and micro-sized companies in the March 11-15 week posted an increase of hiring of 4 percent from the previous week. These firms - with fewer than 100 employees - were the fastest-growing market entities in the period, the report showed.

Analysts said that China's pursuit of developing the new quality productive forces, including artificial intelligence, will also provide new job opportunities for college graduates.