BEIJING, April 25 -- China's employed population in urban area increased by 3.44 million in the first quarter of this year with the unemployment rate remaining at low level, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Friday.

The figure was slightly higher than the same period of last year, albeit the country's economic growth dipped to the lowest in the Jan.-March period since the third quarter of 2012.

By the end of March, the country's registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.08 percent, almost flat with that of the last year, said the ministry spokesman Li Zhong at a press conference.

China also strived to help excessive rural labor get employed, as 7.27 million workers in rural area were employed in local enterprises and 6.89 million workers were organized to work in other regions in the first quarter.

Gross revenue of social insurance funds increased 18.8 percent year on year to 912.13 billion yuan (148.13 billion U.S. dollars), while gross expenditure totaled 730.73 billion yuan, up 18.5 percent from a year ago, Li said.

China's social insurance funds contain five parts, namely basic pension funds, basic medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance and maternity insurance.