Highlights of China's employment over past five years

People wait in line at a job fair in Beijing earlier this month for students who are about to graduate next year. [Photo by Hao Yi/for China Daily]

BEIJING -- China has pursued employment-first policies and made significant progress in ensuring employment during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) despite a grim and complex situation at home and abroad.

The following facts and figures offer a glimpse of how China has stabilized employment over the past five years:

-- Job opportunities continued to increase. The country saw over 13 million new urban jobs added every year between 2016 and 2019, with both registered and surveyed urban unemployment rates kept at relatively low levels, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

-- In 2019, the number of people working in the tertiary industry accounted for 47.4 percent of the total workforce, up 5 percentage points from the end of 2015.

-- The proportion of urban employment was also on the rise, with 57.1 percent of all workers employed in urban areas at the end of 2019, up 4.9 percentage points from the end of 2015.

-- Employment of key groups of job-seekers, including college graduates and migrant workers, remained basically stable. The number of employed migrant workers continued to grow over the past few years, exceeding 290 million by the end of 2019.

-- A public service system for employment and entrepreneurial activities covering both urban and rural residents has been further developed, while measures have been taken to help relieve the burdens of employers and keep payrolls stable.