A total of 9.32 million urban Chinese found employments in the first nine months of the year, exceeding the 9 million annual target, said the Ministry of Labor and Social Security Thursday.

This is the first time in recent years that China has met its yearly target three months ahead of schedule.

Government support and guidance have been key factors in this achievement, said Zhou Tianyong, deputy director of the CPC Central Committee's Party School Research Office.

About 3.92 million of the people finding new jobs were formerly laid-off workers and another 990,000 people belonged to the 40-50 age group.

The rest were graduates from vocational schools and institutions of higher learning, migrant rural laborers and others.

The ministry said the official unemployment rate still stands at 4.1 percent, 0.1 percentage points down from the first half of the year.

With an estimated 10 million urban Chinese joining the labor force each year, and 14 million laid-off workers hunting for jobs, China still faces huge employment pressure.

To encourage enterprises to employ laid-off workers, the central government will provide 25.1 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion) in subsidies this year, 4.2 billion yuan more than last year.

Meanwhile, China has made high employment rate a major goal in building a harmonious society by 2020.

A source with the Ministry said they will now focus on improving reemployment, especially in the less developed central and western areas and the old industrial bases, where big pools of workers are laid off from bankrupt or closing enterprises.

The government will also implement policies aimed at encouraging college graduates to seek jobs in the remote west and grass-roots units, or to start their own businesses.

Official data show that over 9 million urban Chinese found employment annually in the past few years, but that the country's average 10 percent economic growth over the past two decades was no longer able to mop up surplus labor.

"The economic boom is no longer providing as much employment," said Mo Rong, deputy chief of the Ministry's labor science research institute.

He said that much of China's roaring investment fails to create many jobs. The country needs to develop the service sector and promote small and medium sized enterprises, which can create more jobs, said Mo.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2006)