China adds 10.6m new urban jobs in first 9 months this year

China's urban regions added 10.57 million new jobs in the first nine months of this year, achieving 88 percent of the annual employment target, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Wednesday.

The country's employment situation remained generally stable, the ministry said. From January to September, a total of 19.6 billion yuan ($2.76 billion) was allocated for stabilizing payrolls in companies, while 16.6 billion yuan was spent on job training and other employment-supporting initiatives.

In addition, the government provided one-time business subsidies worth 900 million yuan to 140,000 enterprises to encourage hiring, benefiting 600,000 young people, including fresh college graduates.

By the end of September, the national basic pension insurance had 1.074 billion participants, unemployment insurance had 248 million participants, and workers' compensation insurance schemes 304 million participants.

In the first three quarters, total revenue of the three social insurance funds reached 6.69 trillion yuan, with expenditures of 6.04 trillion yuan. The accumulated balance stood at 9.85 trillion yuan by the end of September.

Meanwhile, the number of social security card holders reached 1.39 billion, covering 98.9 percent of the population. Of these, 1.1 billion people have activated electronic versions of the card.

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