Beijing will target average annual growth in minimum wages of at least 13% in the five years to 2015, Reuters reported, quoting a job market plan posted on the government’s website (www.gov.cn) on Wednesday. The government is aiming for minimum wages to be 40% of average local salaries by 2015, said the plan, part of Beijing’s 12th five-year economic plan. The report predicted that pressure from an overall labor oversupply is likely to increase in coming years, despite recent labor shortages in China’s manufacturing bases. “Each year there are 25 million urban residents needing jobs and there are still significant amounts of excess rural labor needing to find jobs,” the plan said. The Chinese government does not publish a national jobless rate; the only official rate compiled by the labor ministry covers only permanent urban residents and is widely regarded as irrelevant.