Significant efforts are being made in China to create 9 million new jobs in cities and towns and another 5 million for laid-off workers this year, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said Wednesday.

It said in a report the country is focusing on generating jobs for unemployed college graduates and migrant workers. Acute unemployment in those two groups has aroused great social concern in recent years.

The ministry said college graduates, who were flooding the employment market, should look to less dynamic western regions and small cities for employment as there was intense competition in the likes of Beijing and Shanghai.

Additional training, internships and employment information would be provided for the jobless, said the ministry. They also aim to train 8 million migrant workers this year helping them to improve their skills which will make them more competitive in the job market.

China's registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.2 percent at the end of June which is lower than the 4.6 percent the government had predicted. In the first half of the year China created 130,000 more jobs than in the same period of last year, the report said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2006)