Item from March 8, 1995, in China Daily: Labor Minister Li Boyong (right) vowed to hold the country's urban unemployment rate below 3 percent by launching a series of programs to address the surplus labor in the cities.

The minister's pledge comes at a time when China expects to see a sharp increase in the number of job seekers as it kicks off a major reform to invigorate State enterprises. ...

In 1994, urban unemployment was 2.9 percent.

Despite a slowdown, the world's second-largest economy has managed to keep stable employment in recent years.

At the end of last year, China's registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.02 percent, the lowest in years, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Last year, the country provided new jobs to 13.14 million urban residents.

The mass entrepreneurship and innovation program initiated by Premier Li Keqiang at the 2014 Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin was viewed as a new driving force for China's economic growth.

Since then, the tide of startups has been sweeping the country.

Last year, more than 15,000 startups were registered every day, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

By 2020, the central government has vowed to create more than 50 million jobs in cities under a plan released by the State Council, China's Cabinet, last month.