With a jobless rate of 4.02 percent, the job market in Mainland China improved slightly in the final quarter of last year, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese government-run news agency quoted data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security showing the unemployment rate in urban areas at the end of the fourth quarter eased from 4.04 percent three months earlier. There were 13.14 million new jobs created in Mainland cities last year, the report says.

The figures exceeded the Government’s full-year targets of an urban unemployment rate of 4.5 percent and the creation of 10 million jobs.

Growth softened in the Mainland last year, with Gross Domestic Product growing by 6.7 percent in year-on-year terms, down slightly from 6.9 percent growth previously.