Unemployment could be long-term trouble for China, with the number of jobless urban residents alone exceeding 15 million, the China Information News quoted a senior official as saying.

China's rapid economic growth has created nine million new jobs annually in recent years, with 11.84 million new jobs available in2006, said Xie Fuzhan, director of the National Bureau of Statistics.

The registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent at the end of 2006, down 0.1 percentage points from the end of 2005.

Despite the impressive growth in new jobs, the unemployment situation will remain severe over the long term, said Xie.

Most of the unemployed are workers laid off from state or collective businesses, college graduates, rural workers and farmers forced out of their livelihoods by industrial development or urbanization, he said.

Statistics show state and collective enterprises laid off about75.9 million workers from 1995 to 2005.

About 4.95 million students will graduate from universities and enter the job market this year and rural surplus laborers will continue to swarm into cities looking for work.

Tian Chengping, Minister of Labor and Social Security, said the government will further boost economic development and carry out fiscal, tax and financial reform to promote employment.

The government will also improve training for all job seekers and facilitate contacts between job hunters and employers, Tian said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2007)