The May 12 earthquake has cost at least 372,000 urban residents in Sichuan their jobs, raising the number of jobless in the province to more than 700,000, a top provincial¹ official said yesterday.

The quake has deprived 1.15 million farmers of the means of production too, Vice-Governor Li Chengyun told a press conference.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) yesterday said Sichuan farmers lost about $6 billion in the quake, which killed millions of farm animals and deprived up to 30 million rural residents of most of their belongings².

It will take three to five years to rebuild the agriculture sector³ of the province, the FAO said.

Sichuan is China's third most populous⁴ province, with about 27 million urban and 60 million rural residents. It has been the largest source of migrant workers too, accounting⁵ for 11 million of them last year.

Li said 16,289 local enterprises suffered direct economic losses of 99.78 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) in the quake. This could be a major reason why existing jobs were lost and new ones have dried up.

But despite the difficulties, Li said, local governments have managed to help more than 40,000 people get jobs by holding job fairs and providing free information.

The central government has mobilized the entire nation to help more quake survivors⁶ get jobs.

The State Council, or the country's cabinet, yesterday pledged to get employment for at least one member of every jobless family.

Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang chaired a meeting in Chengdu yesterday that discussed employment. He officiated at the signing of 20 agreements, too, which were aimed at boosting employment in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, the three provinces hit by the quake.

Under the agreements, 19 provinces, municipalities and cities will create at least 100,000 jobs for the quake survivors and help train 175,000 of them by September.

The All-China Federation⁷ of Trade Unions organized a big three-day job fair in Mianyang city in Sichuan from Sunday.

The 800 firms from five provinces and municipalities participating in the fair are offering 80,000 jobs. The jobs are in sectors⁸ ranging from manufacturing, catering⁹ and sales to community service.