The number of workers laid off from China's state-owned enterprises totaled 1.7 million from January to September.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has announced that China's urban registered unemployment rate stood at 4.2 percent by the end of the third quarter of this year, 0.1 percentage point lower than the 2003 year-end figure.

The number of workers laid off from China's state-owned enterprises totalled 1.7 million from January to September, 840,000 down as against last year.

Over 1 million laid-off workers have signed agreements with government-sponsored reemployment training centers, which provide the workers with subsidies to maintain their minimum living standards and cover social insurance.

But the country had more than 8 million jobless people in its urban areas by the end of September, 210,000 more than that in the previous year.

(CRI.com October 29, 2004)