About 30 percent of China's 14 million unemployed urban population are young people under 35, according to a national report.

"On average, 10 million people -- mainly young people -- are injected into the country's urban labor force each year," said the report released on Wednesday. Based on research into the development of Chinese youth since 2000, the report was written by the China Youth and Children Research Center (CYCRC).

"There are a huge number of unemployed young people in cities, and this has created a lot of pressure," said Liu Junyan of the CYCRC.

Most of the 150 to 200 million surplus rural labor force waiting to be employed in non-agriculture sectors are also young people, according to the report.

The situation is partially explained by the surge of college graduates, who have had to be absorbed into the urban workforce, it said.

The proportion of young people, especially rural youth aged between 20 and 29, working away from home is much higher than other groups of Chinese, said the report, adding education, work and marriage have prompted Chinese young to migrate,

Nearly 37 percent of the migrant population are moving to the booming southern province of Guangdong.

The report also showed that a large number of Chinese youth have been employed in the country's private and rural enterprises, or become employers and set up their own businesses.

(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2007)