12 million jobs created in 2011: China

BEIJING: Chinese government has said that 12 million new jobs have been created in cities and towns this year and kept the registered urban unemployment rate below 4.6 per cent.

Announcing this, Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security, told a national conference that China's social security funds that insure pension, medicare, unemployment, work-related injury compensation and maternity pay collected 2.35 trillion yuan (USD 372 billion) in revenues this year, up 24.7 per cent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, spending by social security funds will rise 21.5 per cent from a year ago to 1.8 trillion yuan this year, official Xinhua news agency reported.

Across the country, 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities raised their minimum wage standards by an average of 22 per cent year-on-year in 2011, the minister said.

Labour law enforcement helped 1.29 million migrant workers recover 2.94 billion yuan in defaulted salaries and compensation this year, he said.