April 18, 2018 -- Job seekers check recruitment information at a job fair held in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province. (Photo by Shi Jianxue/For China Daily)
 
April 18, 2018 -- China continued to see a stable job market in the first quarter this year, with a low unemployment rate, strong demand in the job market, and improved job prospects for certain groups of people, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.
 
More than 3.3 million new urban jobs were created in the first quarter of the year, among which 1.54 million were created in March with a year-on-year growth of 80,000, an article by the commission's employment and revenue allocation department said.
 
The registered urban unemployment rate decreased 0.08 percentage points to 3.89 percent by the end of Q1, a record low since 2012. In March, the urban surveyed unemployment rates nationwide and in 31 major cities were 5.06 percent and 4.88 percent, with year-on-year decrease of 0.06 and 0.07 percentage points respectively.
 
From January to March, the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.0 percent, 5.0 percent and 5.1 percent respectively, down 0.2 percentage points, 0.4 percentage points and 0.1 percentage points from the same month last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
 
Meanwhile, China's job market witnessed strong demand, with an over 10 percent year-on-year increase of enterprise employment demand in February and over 90 percent of people returning to work after Spring Festival, the article said, citing a survey by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.