China is striving to expand the coverage of unemployment insurance to employees of non-state enterprises, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security Tuesday.

According to statistics from the ministry, China had 105.8 million people covered by unemployment insurance at the end of last year, 2.1 million more than the figure in the previous year.

The number of people receiving unemployment insurance payment rose by 40,000 year-on-year to hit 4.19 million last year.

Meanwhile, the coverage of China's 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 to take more people from non-public sectors or those with no fixed jobs into the insurance network in 2005," said Hu Xiaoyi, the ministry's spokesman.

According to the statistics, the accumulation of the five social insurance funds amounted to 560 billion yuan (67.7 billion US dollars) and the total payment exceeded 460 billion yuan (55.6 billion US dollars) in 2004.

Source: Xinhua