BEIJING — China has seen continuous employment growth in the first half of 2017, helped by an expanding service sector and the upgrade of the manufacturing sector, official data showed Monday.

Some 7.35 million new jobs were created in China's urban regions from January to June, up 180,000 from the same period last year, said Xing Zhihong, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, at a press conference.

That means China has already fulfilled 66.8 percent of its official goal of creating 11 million new jobs this year, Xing said.

Meanwhile, both the national urban surveyed unemployment rate and the surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major Chinese cities stayed below 5 percent in June, Xing told reporters.

He described China's employment situation as "continuing to improve."

China's economy has been operating within a reasonable range, maintaining stable, coordinated and sustainable development in the first half, Xing said.

A larger share in the economy for the service sector, as well as the upgrade of the manufacturing industry, also lent strong support for employment, according to Xing.

Migrant workers leaving their hometowns continued to increase, with 3.64 million added at the end of the second quarter in comparison with the same time last year, said Xing.

China added 13.14 million jobs last year, and the registered urban jobless rate stood at 4.02 percent at the end of 2016.