Candidates look at employment opportunities at a job fair in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. (LIU JIANHUA / CHINA DAILY)

The nation's job market remained stable in the first quarter of the year, with the surveyed urban unemployment rate registering a slight decrease, said the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

According to the NBS, the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas was 5.5 percent on average in first quarter, falling by 0.1 of a percentage point from the fourth quarter of 2022.

In March, the surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.3 percent, dropping by 0.3 of a percentage point from that in February.

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However, people age 16 to 24 still saw a higher surveyed unemployment rate of 19.6 percent in the past three months, while the rate for those age 25 to 59 was 4.3 percent.

The NBS said that surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, was 5.5 percent on average in March, falling by 0.2 of a percentage point from the previous month.

The surveyed unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people who participated in the employment survey in urban areas, including migrant workers in cities.