BEIJING, Feb. 28-- Growth in the number of former farmers pursuing non-agricultural work has slowed as more people are reluctant to leave their hometowns, official data showed on Saturday.

China had 274 million farmer-turned-laborers as of the end of 2014, and 168 million of them had moved to cities to seek work, according to data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS).

However, growth in the number of total non-agricultural workers and migrant workers slowed to 1.9 percent and 1.3 percent respectively in 2014, from 2.4 percent and 1.7 percent the previous year.

China has the world's largest population of farmers.

But their willingness to grow crops has waned as returns from the land are typically much smaller than those from working in cities, posing threats to the country's food security. The trend is slowing, however, thanks to the government's efforts to boost agricultural production.

The number of new workers coming from rural areas has been shrinking since 2011, said Vice Minister Yang Zhiming.

The annual increase of workers' wages has also slowed down. Monthly salaries of migrant workers increased less than 10 percent to 2,864 yuan (around 470 U.S. dollars) in 2014, down from 13.9 percent registered in 2013 and much lower than the 20-percent increase five years ago.

SKILLED WORKERS NEEDED

Despite a growing population rushing to cities, experienced laborers are still badly needed in China, which is trying to move up the global value chain by stimulating high-tech sectors with high value added.

The majority of migrant workers in China lack skills -- only one third of workers have received training before employment. Workers that can be counted as having expertise in their field accounted for 19 percent of all those employed nationwide, while highly-skilled talent made up merely 5 percent, the MHRSS data showed.

Chinese factories have started to meet trouble in finding qualified workers, while former farmers are familiar with the experience of being turned for jobs on the grounds that they lack skills.

The structural contradiction has become a normal state, Yang said.

The problem has emerged as a hurdle to industrial upgrading in China, which is mulling measures to reverse the situation.

The country plans to launch a mass training program to train 20 million migrant workers each year, according to Yang. "As of 2020, all young migrant workers will be able to learn a trade with subsidies from the government," he said.

Measures including tax reduction will also be maintained to support companies in the tertiary sector, small and medium-sized enterprises and labor-intensive factories, usually generous employers of workers from the countryside.

In addition, seasoned migrant workers will be encouraged to return to their hometown and set up their own businesses, Yang said, estimating the size of this group at two million currently.