On Tuesday, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Labor and Social
Security said it is striving to expand coverage of unemployment
insurance to employees of non-state enterprises.
Hu Xiaoyi said that 105.8 million people were covered by
unemployment insurance at the end of 2004, 2.1 million more than
the previous year.
The number receiving unemployment insurance payments rose by
40,000 year-on-year to 4.19 million.
Meanwhile, coverage of social security, medical insurance,
industrial injury insurance and maternity insurance have all
expanded rapidly, reaching 163.4 million, 123.9 million, 68.2
million and 43.7 million people respectively.
"We are considering taking more people from non-public sectors
or those with no fixed jobs into the insurance network in 2005,"
said Hu.
The total value of the five social insurance funds came to 560
billion yuan (US$67.7 billion) in 2004, and total payments exceeded
460 billion yuan (US$55.6 billion).
(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2005)