CHINA

Unemployment Crisis Looms: China admitted the problem last week, and that 268 million new job seekers--more than the population of most countries--are expected to join the hunt by 1999. The Labor Ministry has set a two-year program to expand the domestic labor market to try to keep the official unemployment rate below 3%, the China Daily newspaper said. By the turn of the century, China expects to see 200 million more rural job seekers and 68 million more in the cities, the newspaper quoted Zhang Xiaojian, director of the department of labor and employment, as saying.