China has created jobs for 9.2 million urbanites in the first three quarters of the year, exceeding the target of nine million for the whole year, said the Ministry of Labor and Social Security on Monday.

The country's urban unemployment rate was registered at four percent by the end of September, down from 4.1 percent recorded at the same period last year, said ministry spokesperson Yin Chenji.

"The country's overall employment situation continues to be stable," Yin said at Monday's press conference held in Beijing.

About 4.06 million of the people finding jobs were laid-off workers and another 1.1 million were those who had difficulties in finding new jobs such as men aged 50 or higher and women aged above 40.

The Chinese government is under great pressure to create new jobs for the annual influx of ten million job seekers flocking into the country's urban areas.

The ministry said it was expecting to have 12 million more urbanites employed this year.

Statistics show that a total of 11.84 million urban Chinese found jobs last year, the first time China has seen the number of newly employed urban people exceed 10 million in one year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2007)