The employment situation in China was very grave as job seekers outnumbered openings by two to one in 2010, said Yin Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security Friday.

Twenty-four million people, including 6.3 million fresh college graduates and 6 million high school graduates, will enter the job market this year but only 12 million jobs were available, he said at a press conference.

Also, the government faced the daunting task of helping people shift from rural areas, where there was a huge labor surplus, to find employment in the cities.

Besides the oversupply of labor, there was the problem of structural unemployment, which was evident in the labor shortage in the spring and the unemployment of large numbers of college graduates in the fall, he said.

Yin said the government would continue to prioritize employment in its work, with a focus on finding jobs for college graduates, rural migrant workers and unemployed urban residents.

China's urban unemployment rate stood at 4.3 percent at the end of 2009, with 9.21 million people unemployed, according to the white paper, China's Human Resources, released Friday at the press conference.

The 41-page paper, released by the State Council Information Office, introduced the country's human resources situation, related laws and regulations and protection of workers' rights and interests.