China set a goal to create around 12 million urban jobs in 2023. The job creation goal for this year is expected to be unveiled at the opening of the annual parliamentary meeting in March.
"China's economic operation has become more uncertain with weak social expectations in 2024," said Yun Donglai, deputy director of the ministry's employment promotion department.
"The pressure on total employment will not decrease in 2024, and more efforts will be needed to stabilise employment," said Yun.
Yun said more prominence would be given to priority targets, such as strengthening support for youth employment, including college graduates, and expanding job opportunities for them.
The world's second-biggest economy grew 5.2% last year, meeting the government's target, but it is burdened by a protracted property market downturn, weak consumer and business confidence, and mounting local government debt.
As businesses remained wary of adding workers in the face of uncertainties, a nationwide survey-based jobless rate increased to 5.1% in December from November's 5.0%, official data showed last week.
For the full year of 2023, the average nationwide survey-based jobless rate dropped to 5.2% from 5.6% in 2022.
In a competitive job market, some Chinese college graduates are trading down to find a source of income as the youth jobless figure rose to a record high of 21.3% in June last year.
The National Bureau of Statistics resumed the publication of youth unemployment data in December after a five-month suspension. The December survey-based jobless rate for 16-24 year-olds, excluding college students, was at 14.9%.
(Reporting by Liangping Gao, Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
