BEIJING - China's jobs market performed stably in September with declining unemployment rate and rising job creation, data showed Friday.

In September, the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas came in at 4.9 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from the same period a year ago and from that recorded a month ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The number of newly-created jobs in urban areas had exceeded 11 million in the first three quarters, meeting the government's annual target three months ahead of schedule, the NBS data showed.

Starting April this year, the NBS has regularly released the monthly surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas to help the government improve macro-control and provide information for formulating employment policies.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people who have participated in the employment survey in urban areas, including migrant workers in cities.

The rate was first introduced in 2014 to better reflect the jobs market and serve as a supplement to the registered urban unemployment rate compiled by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 6.7 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2018 to about 65.09 trillion yuan ($9.38 trillion), the NBS data also showed.

The pace was in line with market expectations and higher than the government's annual growth target of around 6.5 percent.