"State-owned companies must keep stability of staff team and try not to cut jobs," the Xinhua news agency reported, citing Li Rongrong, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, a watchdog.

"The impact of the financial crisis on our economy and state companies must not be underestimated," he was quoted as saying.

"The situation next year is grave and difficulties will mount. More emphasis must be put on the issue of ... social stability."

The remarks came amid increasing concern over the impact of the economic crisis, following a number of riots in recent months linked to layoffs.

Chinese officials have unveiled a number of measures aimed at maintaining and creating jobs, particularly among the nation's millions of rural workers, including financial aid to companies.

The government expected to remain within its target of a 4.5 percent unemployment rate by the end of the year, Zhang Xiaojian, vice-minister of social security, said recently.

The rate is widely seen as vastly underestimating China's real jobless problem because it does not include millions of rural workers.

Sharp slowdown in profit growth among Chinese enterprises: govt
China's industrial firms posted combined profits of 2.4 trillion yuan (350 billion dollars) in the first 11 months of 2008, up 4.9 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

The figure represented a sharp decline from 36.7 percent growth in the same period last year, providing the latest evidence that the nation's economy is quickly losing steam.

Among decliners, state-owned firms performed the worst with total profits down 14.5 percent in January through November year-on-year to 798.5 billion yuan, the bureau said in a statement.

Profits of foreign-funded companies, including those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, fell 3.1 percent to 637.4 billion yuan for the same period.

But private-owned firms saw profits rise 36.6 percent to 549.5 billion yuan while joint stock enterprises posted profit growth of 11.4 percent to 1.3 trillion yuan, it said.

The statement also said profits in the oil processing and refinery industry lost a combined 126 billion yuan compared with a net profit of 24.5 billion a year earlier. Steel firm profits also fell 13.7 percent in the first 11 months.

The profits figures only cover companies with annual prime operating revenue above five million yuan.

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