China has always placed a high priority on support for the jobs market, seeing a high level of employment as connected to overall social stability. In addition, the working element of the country’s 1.4 billion population is a key for driving economic growth. A major concern for Beijing is ensuring employment for the rising number of fresh university and college graduates who enter the work force every year, as well as the rising number of retires who need to be supported via the pension fund by those in employment. China provides an official surveyed unemployment rate for urban workers, although it is seen by some as being unrepresentative of the overall employment situation, as it does not include most of China’s 149 million self-employed business owners and nearly 300 million migrant workers.