China's job market stable in Q1, 2.99 million urban jobs added

China's job market remained generally stable in the first quarter of this year, with 2.99 million new jobs created in urban areas nationwide and an average surveyed urban unemployment rate of 5.3 percent, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

From January to March, efforts focused on employment for key groups, such as college graduates and young people, to seize the critical period for graduates entering the job market and accelerate measures to help more secure employment as early as possible, Cui Pengcheng, a ministry spokesperson, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

China has set a target of around 5.5 percent for the surveyed urban unemployment rate in 2026 and aims to create more than 12 million new urban jobs this year.

Policy measures have also been developed to expand large-scale vocational skills training, particularly by strengthening the supply of high-quality training resources in fields such as artificial intelligence, the low-altitude economy, new energy vehicles and elderly care services, Cui said.

In collaboration with other departments, about 59,000 job fairs have been held nationwide, offering 36 million positions. Nearly 1 million "point-to-point" transportation trips have been provided for migrant workers, he said.