China provided jobs for 9.7 million urban residents in 2005, compared with 9.8 million in 2004, a spokesman with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said in Beijing Thursday.

During the 2001-2005 period, more than 180 million workers laid off from state-owned enterprises found new jobs, said spokesman Hu Xiaoyi at a press conference.

In 2005, he said, the number of unemployed people stood at 8.39 million, with a registered unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, the same with the previous year.

By the end of 2005, China's employed population reached 760 million, 40 million more than at the end of 2000.

In 2005, nearly 700 billion yuan (US$87.5 billion) went into the funds for pension, unemployment, medical treatment, work injury and maternity insurance, with 540 billion yuan paid to beneficiaries, the spokesman said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2006)