China sees steady employment growth in 2017

BEIJING - China continued to see a stable growth in employment in 2017, official data showed Monday.

The number of employees rose 370,000 to 776.4 million last year, according to a bulletin released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Nearly 45 percent of all employees were in tertiary industries, while 28.1 percent and 27 percent were in secondary and primary.

Urban employment rose 10 million to 424 million.

The total value of five social insurance premiums, including old-age pensions and unemployment insurance, increased 25.4 percent to 6.7 trillion yuan ($1.05 trillion).

The average wage of urban employees in the public sector rose 10 percent to stand at 74,318 yuan ($11,600) for the year, while in the private sector the average salary rose 6.8 percent to 45,761 yuan.

The average annual wages of migrant workers increased 6.4 percent to 41,820 yuan, according to the bulletin.