The situation of employment for China's rural migrant workers has taken a turn for the better, with 151 million employed outside their hometowns at the end of June, up 2.6 percent from the first quarter figure, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The employed rural migrant workers work mainly in the manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for 37.9 percent and 18.3 percent of the total employed respectively, according to a survey conducted by the NBS and Human Resources and Social Security Ministry.

By the end of June, 4.2 million rural migrant workers were still unemployed outside of their hometowns.

Among those, 28.7 percent had quit their jobs because of "low income", and about 50 percent were unemployed for reasons ranging from "not having yet found a proper job" or "payroll cuts resulting from businesses' closures or bankruptcy".

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2009)