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)