China unemployment rate eases

Beijing - China's urban unemployment rate ticked down to 4.05% at the end of March from 4.1% at the end of 2014, the labour ministry said on Friday.

Facing slowing economic growth, Chinese authorities have said that avoiding mass unemployment is a crucial policy priority, although the urban jobless rate is widely known to understate the real unemployment figure, a point acknowledged by the government.

The government aims to create at least 10 million new jobs in 2015 and keep the urban jobless rate below 4.5%.

The urban unemployment rate hovered between 4% and 4.5% in the last decade, even during the global financial crisis, partly because it does not account for China's 298 million migrant labour.

To improve the data, the Chinese government has devised a new jobless rate that is compiled through surveys. The statistics bureau said last week that the survey-based jobless rate hovered around 5.1%.

China's annual economic growth slowed to a six-year low of 7% in the first quarter, hurt by a housing slump and a downturn in investment and manufacturing.

Authorities have rolled out a series of stimulus measures over the last year, including two interest rate cuts since November, to cushion the blow, but have indicated they may be willing to tolerate somewhat cooler growth if the labour market remains resilient.