Sources from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said that during the fourth quarter, supply and demand for jobs fell, according to statistics from 101 cities provided by the China Labor Market Info Net Monitoring Center. Generally speaking however, the supply of labor still exceeds demand.

In the fourth quarter of 2006, of the 3.723 million unemployed workers, approximately 3.571 million found jobs. Compared to the previous quarter, the number of job vacancies and job seekers fell by 582,000 and 586,000 respectively.

Of these job seekers, 53.8 percent are looking for work after being made redundant. The number of unemployed first-time job seekers, mostly young people, fell 2.8 percent, and the number of unemployed migrant workers rose 2.7 percent.

Data collected on China's ten largest cities show that there is a big demand for restaurant attendants, workers to operate cold-processing machines, salesmen and security personnel. The demand for shop salespeople, operators of mechanical equipment for road transportation and related staff, administrative staff and physical laborers is relatively small.

These 101 cities, located in each of China's big regions, have a combined population of 149 million and make up 57.4 percent of China's city population (prefecture-level, city or above). Some 52.53 million people work in these cities (including those that are self-employed), which is approximately 60.3 percent of China's urban workforce.

By Peaple's Daily Online