China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Friday that nonfarm payroll employment increased to 3.18 million in the first quarter. By the end of March, the country's unemployment rate read at 4.04 percent, almost unchanged from a year ago.

Meanwhile, the ministry also said that the total social security fund in the first quarter reached 1.21 trillion yuan, up by 14.7 percent year on year, while expenditure was about 968 billion yuan, jumping 12.8 percent from a year earlier.