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95% of China's home-returning migrant workers back in cities

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-04 13:41

China dispelled Tuesday concerns over migrant workers who had returned their rural homes jobless after the financial crisis forced closure of factories in the country's coastal regions, where they used to work.

Ninety-five percent of 70 million homebound migrant workers have headed back to cities after the Spring Festival, said Wang Yadong, deputy head of employment promotion department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

The remaining five percent have either found work in their hometowns or started up their own businesses there, Wang told reporters at a press conference.

About 18 million migrant workers returned home jobless before the Spring Festival, Wang said, citing a survey jointly conducted by the ministry and the National Bureau of Statistics during the Spring Festival.

The figure is less than earlier, put at 20 million by Chen Xiwen, director of the office of the central leading group on rural work, in February.

Related readings:  China mulls urbanization of 140m migrant workers  A new generation of migrant workers  China trains more than 12m construction migrant workers

Wang said about 50 percent of migrant workers, or 70 million, returned home before the Spring Festival, the most important occasion for Chinese to get together with their families.

He said of the total 225 million farmer-turned workers across the nation at the end of last year, 140 million worked outside their hometown, or called migrant workers.

In an update to the figure, Wang said another 10 million farmers headed to cities to find jobs in the first six months of this year.

He added that three percent of migrant workers in the cities are still struggling to find work as of the end of June, painting a rosy picture of employment among migrant workers.