Over 21 million Chinese were employed by the country's maritime sector by the end of 2001, and the figure is expected to reach 25.5 million next year, the country's recent unprecedented official survey shows.

According to the survey launched by the National Bureau of Oceanography in October 2002, 21.076 million people were employed by the maritime sector by the end of 2001, accounting for 8.2 percent of the total workforce of the country's coastal provincialareas.

Of the figure, 5.227 million are women, or 24.8 percent of all those involved in the maritime sector, the results of the survey show.

The survey, made in cooperation with the National Bureau of Statistics, is the first of its kind launched in China.

Source: Xinhua