By the end of 2002, about 6.692 million employees and 2.811 million retirees had been granted basic job-related old-age pensions, while 5.911 million people received unemployment benefits and 1.501 million people received government assistance for minimum living standards.

About 6.17 million employees in the province carried basic medicare insurance by late 2002, up 76.3 percent from the same period in 2001, according to the provincial statistics bureau.

The province, a center for heavy industry, has made great efforts to set up a social security system for urban residents, knowing it would have a significant bearing on the country's reform, development and stability.

Liaoning, which is dominated by outdated State-owned industries, launched the country's first pilot project for social security reform for urban residents in July 2001 as approved by the central government.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2003)