Protest-hit China says job stability top priority

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - Stabilising employment is the top priority for China, a minister said on Thursday as he revealed a rise in jobless workers triggered by a weakened export sector amid a series of strikes and protests.

Unemployment rose in October as the impact of the global financial crisis hit China's production heartland. The ranks of jobless are expected to rise further in 2009, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Yin Weimin said.

"Stabilising employment is the top priority for us right now," Yin said.

After decades of solid economic growth, China is battling an unknown as falling demand for its products triggers factory closures, sparks protests and raises fears of popular unrest.

Faltering economic conditions have raised the spectre of growth falling below 8 percent, which the government regards as a benchmark to create enough jobs to sop up excess labour and guarantee social stability.

"This is something we are concerned about. The unemployment situation is basically stable this year. But starting in October, unemployment in China has begun to show the impact of changes in the international economic situation," he said.

"...The global economic crisis is picking up speed and spreading from developed to developing countries and the effects are becoming more and more pronounced here. Our economy is facing a serious challenge."

Workers in southern and coastal China have gathered at shuttered factory gates in the last month, seeking back wages, while local governments vow to pursue bosses who have fled.