(Yicai) July 23 -- China's surveyed urban unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent last month, down from 5.7 percent year-over-year and below the expected maximum of 5.5 percent, due to policy support and economic recovery.

From January to June, almost seven million new urban jobs were created, up 200,000 compared to the same period last year, achieving 58 percent of the annual target, Yun Donglai, deputy director of a department at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said during a press conference today.

Employment of key groups, including new university graduates, remained generally stable, Yun said, without disclosing specific data per age group.

However, the stats bureau said last week that the urban unemployment rate for youngsters aged from 16 to 24, excluding students, was 13.2 percent in June. The rate was 6.4 percent for the 25-29-year-olds and 4 percent for adults aged from 30 to 59.

The ministry aims to stabilize employment by strengthening policies involving special loans, promoting advanced manufacturing, and the silver economy. It encourages entrepreneurship and innovation. Moreover, it aims to improve service quality to provide more efficient, convenient, and precise high-quality employment services for enterprises and workers, Yun added.

The MOHRSS will intensify its efforts to promote the employment of college graduates and other young people, and take multiple measures to enhance migrant workers' work opportunities.

China's labor market is expected to stay stable based on the trends of economic recovery, policy boost, and the advance of new quality productive forces, Yun said, adding that the nation still needs to make greater efforts to address challenges because the external environment remains complex and severe. Domestic demand is not sufficient and some enterprises have operational issues and certain people have trouble finding jobs, he further explained.

Editor: Emmi Laine