In the first six months of this year, governments at different levels have made hard efforts to deal with the issue of employment and helped 8.53 million people find jobs, according to official sources.

Of those newly-employed, 5.95 million found their jobs for the first time and the rest 2.58 million were re-employed workers who had been laid off by state-owned companies.

Of these re-employed, 660,000 were aged between 40 and 50 years, who are called "The 4050 Army" in China.

As of the end of June, the number of registered jobless people stood at 8.32 million. The registered unemployment rate was 4.2 percent, which is equivalent to last year's.

This year, the government has stepped up efforts to assist the jobless and improve their working capabilities by providing information on employment, sponsoring training programs and holding specific job fairs for people of different categories such as layoffs and university graduates.

In the first six months, 3.85 million people participated in appraisals of professional skills, and of them, 3.28 million received a certificate.

Meanwhile, 2.6 million layoffs were trained on re-employment and 170,000 attended trainings for starting up their own business.

Moreover, special efforts were made to help transient laborers from rural areas. Over 4,500 job fairs were held and over 4 million positions were recommended for 1.1 million job-seekers from rural areas.

The authorities, however, have faced a harsh job in the field of employment. In 2005, the number of new labors is expected to top 11 million, including 3.38 million college graduates, 2.5 million secondary school graduates, 2.1 million junior and high school graduates, over 500,000 newly-demobilized service people, and 2.5 million former farmers who bid farewell to farming due to urbanization.

China's trade conflicts with Europe and the United States have affected the employment of almost 300,000 people in the country. The authorities expect similar problems in the future.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2005)