By RIA Novosti,
Beijing : China’s worst earthquake in three decades has left 372,000 town dwellers unemployed in the worst-hit province of Sichuan, the China Daily reported on Monday.
Direct economic losses from the quake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, are estimated at $14.5 billion with over 16,000 commercial firms completely destroyed.
The Sichuan provincial government has held a number of job fairs and introduced other measures to try and reduce unemployment, which has helped some 40,000 people find employment.
The earthquake has also left 1.15 million farmers without agricultural equipment.
The confirmed death toll is 69,195, but local authorities say the final figure is likely to exceed 80,000 with over 18,000 people still unaccounted for.
With a population exceeding 87 million, Sichuan is China’s third most populated region, having 27 million town dwellers and 60 million rural residents.