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Unemployment rate down 1.48% in Beijing Beijing's unemployment woes have eased slightly in the first quarter of the year, thanks to the city's blistering economic momentum, according to municipal economic figures. The growth rate of the city's gross domestic product (GDP) between January and March reached the highest point in the past decade -- 13.8 per cent, said Yu Xiuqin, bureau spokeswoman. The registered unemployment rate in urban areas was 1.48 per cent by the end of last month,0.01 percentage point down from the same period last year, said Yu. Meanwhile, driven by the economic boom, more than 35 per cent of those out of work found new jobs in the first quarter, or a 0.35 percentage point jump year-on-year, said Yu. According to a recent survey conducted by the bureau among unemployed people, nearly 56 per cent of respondents indicated they were discharged less than a year before. Around 58 per cent reported having no social security insurance and 60 per cent said they were keen on finding a new job. "The municipal government aims to curb the unemployment rate to just 2.5 per cent this year," said Yu. "The current unemployment situation is at a moderate level and taking a turn for the better." She estimates the economic growth of Beijing will speed up in the next four to six months, which will do nothing but help create more job opportunities. "If everything goes smoothly, the city's GDP will enjoy double-digit growth this year," said Yu. At Monday's news briefing by the bureau, the spokeswoman summarized the impact of bird flu on Beijing's job market in the past few months. She said sales of poultry plummeted 56.4 per cent in February when the epidemic was at its peak in China, and restaurants mainly serving chicken and duck meals suffered mightily. "But these sectors almost recovered completely by the end of last month and the market now has returned to normal," said Yu. However, she noted that the city's tourism industry, which felt the brunt of the damage caused by SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) last year, has still been sluggish due to the follow-on of avian influenza. Statistics show that the capital city received 1.85 million overseas tourists last year, a drop of 40.4 per cent from 2002. "Although the inbound tourism recovered to a normal level starting last November, the industry was again beat to a bottom in the first quarter," said Yu. The number of overseas tourists dropped 12.4 per cent between January and last month compared with the same period last year. The spokeswoman also expressed concern over the agriculture sector, whose added value dropped 1.7 per cent in the past quarter, the first downward trend since 1998. She said price hikes for food nationwide since late last year failed to bring much income to farmers in Beijing, because the cash gained from agriculture only accounts for less than 10 per cent of the total income for rural residents. |
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