China to hold unemployment rate under 5%

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China aims to create 85 million jobs and hold its unemployment rate under 5 percent from 2011 to 2015, according to a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council, or China's Cabinet, on Friday.

The statement said that the government wanted to create jobs for 45 million people in cities and 40 million unemployed laborers in the countryside.

"To boost employment should be made the priority of our social and economic development," the statement said.

The government will implement a more proactive policy to spur employment and provide fiscal, taxation and financial support to that end, the statement said, citing the decisions of the meeting, which was presided over by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The targeted rate is the same with the goal set for the 2006-2010 period but higher than the 4.1 percent urban unemployment rate recorded at the end of the third quarter of this year.

From 2006 to 2010, 55 million new jobs were created in urban areas and 45 million people in the rural surplus labor force were transferred to new job positions, official data shows.

The country faces an "arduous task" in creating enough jobs and employment pressure will "continue to build up in the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015)," the statement said.

It added that China faces substantial job creation pressures as there are on average one million more people seeking employment each year up to 2015, compared with the last five years.

Job shortage in urban areas will exceed 13 million each year between 2011 and 2015, putting a higher pressure on employment than the previous five-year period, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has forecast.

China's economy has slowed this year as forceful domestic monetary policy tightening and Europe's festering debt crisis. China's economic growth slowed to 9.1 percent in the third quarter from 9.5 percent in the second quarter and 9.7 percent in the first quarter.

The country will prioritize the development of industries and enterprises that can create more jobs than others, the statement said.

Meanwhile, priority will be given to facilitating the employment of college graduates, it added.

Official estimates put the number of college graduates in 2012 at 6.8 million, 200,000 more than the previous year.

The government also aims to expand the social security system to all workers and improve employment stability significantly by 2015, according to the statement.

Better job training and unemployment monitoring will be offered, it said.

(Xinhua New Agecny contributed to the story)