Unemployment is still a serious concern in the second half of the year despite some improvements, senior government officials say.

More than 2 million people will lose their jobs before the end of this year due to bankruptcies or reorganization of enterprises, said Wang Yadong Thursday. Wang is vice-director of the Department of Training and Employment of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

"Meanwhile, laid-off workers in some industries and resource-exhausted areas will find it more difficult to get re-employed," Wang said.

The registered unemployment rate in China's urban areas in the first part of this year was 4.3 percent, the same as the figure recorded at the end of last year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

The number has been on the rise from 3.1 percent in 2000. It was 3.6 percent in 2001 and 4.0 percent in 2002.

But experts say the real unemployment rate in China might reach more than 10 percent since the statistics fail to consider surplus labor forces in rural areas.

Job pressure is caused by a growing labor force, surplus rural laborers flowing into urban areas and laid-off employees in cities and towns, said Chen Mingxing, an economist with State Information Center. On the other hand, economic growth is creating fewer jobs, Chen said.

Thanks to the continuous efforts some headway has been made to tackle re-employment, said Hu Xiaoyi, a ministry spokesman during a press conference Thursday.

In the first half of this year, a total of 5.9 million urban people found new jobs and 2.84 million laid-off urban workers were re-employed, Hu said.

Although the delay of some industrial projects in the first part of this year had a negative impact on creating job opportunities, a series of measures adopted by the Chinese Government have helped many people find jobs, he said.

Since 2002, the Chinese Government has started pushing for small and guaranteed loans for laid-off workers to help them set up their own businesses.

"Government departments, including the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, People's Bank of China and Ministry of Finance, have boosted their support for the nation's laid-off workers by making bank loans more readily available to them," Hu said.

Moreover, re-employment training has also helped laid-off workers find new jobs, he said.

The ministry will continue to step up efforts by strengthening the preferential policy of small and guaranteed bank loans to unemployed people, said Wang.

Technical training will be intensified to help laid-off workers improve their re-employment abilities, he added.

Unemployment control will be implemented and labor-intensive industries and service industries will be developed so that the total employment scale can be guaranteed, said Wang.

"By means of macro-regulation, government departments should take job opportunities into account when examining and approving some industrial projects to create a cycle of sound economic development and employment expanding," Wang said.

(China Daily July 23, 2004)