The unemployment rate was 4.04 percent in the first three quarters, dropping for the first time in three years.

China created new jobs for 10.66 million urban residents in the nine months to October, said Yin Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, during a news conference in Beijing on Friday.

The registered unemployment rate in urban China was 4.04 percent at the end of September, he said. China's unemployment rate has lingered at 4.1 percent since September 2010, according to statistics released by the ministry.