MK sports East China's Anhui Province on October 16, 2024. The job fair attracted more than 183 companies offering more than 10,000 positions. The year 2024 is expected to see 11.79 million students graduating from colleges, an increase of 210,000 from 2023. Photo: VCG " src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2024/2024-10-16/0c36ef72-e5ba-4bfb-bcd2-5c6026a8ff17.jpeg" />

College students look for jobs at an employment fair held on the campus of the Huaibei Normal University in Huaibei, East China's Anhui Province on October 16, 2024. The job fair attracted more than 183 companies offering more than 10,000 positions. Photo: VCG

China created 12.56 million new urban jobs in 2024, surpassing the government's target of 12 million, data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) showed on Tuesday.

The urban surveyed unemployment rate averaged 5.1 percent in 2024, 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous year, according to the ministry.

"The employment situation remained generally stable," Lu Aihong, spokesperson of the MOHRSS, said at a press conference on Tuesday, stressing that stable employment is an important foundation for ensuring people's livelihoods, promoting development and stabilizing expectations.

As of the end of 2024, over 33.05 million people who had been lifted from poverty were employed. China's social security card holders reached nearly 1.39 billion as of the end of last year, including 1.07 billion digital social security card users, Lu said.

"The results were hard-won amid a sluggish world economic recovery and domestic short-term challenges last year," Peng Xizhe, director of the Center for Population and Development Policy Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

He attributed the country's stable employment situation in 2024 to the expansion of the economy, more job opportunities in the services sector, and the government's "employment first" policy.

China's GDP grew 5 percent year-on-year in 2024, reaching a record of 134.91 trillion yuan ($18.77 trillion), according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

Looking ahead, with the goal of promoting high-quality and sufficient employment, we will deepen reform in the field by prioritizing employment, stabilizing the employment situation of key groups and improving public services in a bid to ensure stable employment, Chen Yongjia, an official with the MOHRSS, said at the same conference on Tuesday.

Chen said that the ministry will boost coordination of fiscal, monetary and industry policies; implement employment support plans for key areas, key industries, urban and rural grassroots levels, and medium-sized, small and micro-sized enterprises; and strengthen regular meetings among various government agencies to create new growth points for expanding employment.

To boost employment for youth including college graduates, the ministry will further support medium-sized, small and micro-sized enterprises as well as social organizations to hire college graduates, launch over 1 million internship positions, and encourage them to start businesses.

China is projected to see a surge in the number of college graduates in 2025. With an estimated rise of 430,000 graduates from the previous year, the total number of college graduates is expected to reach 12.22 million, according to official data.

"China's overall employment situation this year is expected to be better than in 2024," Peng said. The country's large-scale equipment renewal policies and trade-ins of consumer goods to boost domestic demand and support economic growth will produce effects in the employment sector in around half a year, and accordingly, manufacturers and companies will tend to hire more in 2025, he said.

Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the stepped-up macro-policies - including a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy this year - will further expand domestic demand, stabilize market participants and strengthen growth momentum, and accordingly stabilize the employment market.

As the share of services sector added-value in GDP continues to rise, and new business models and industries develop rapidly, China's economic and social development will continue to drive employment, Li said.