BEIJING - Growth in the number of people employed in China's urban areas slowed for the first time since the global financial crisis in the first quarter of 2015, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) said on Friday.

January-March, China's employed rural population grew by 3.24 million, 200,000 less than the same period last year, MOHRSS spokesperson Li Zhong said at a press conference.

By the end of March, China's registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.05 percent, lower than the 4.09 percent logged for the whole of 2014 and the 4.08 percent registered in the first quarter of last year.

The MOHRSS data also showed that the gross revenue of social insurance funds increased 15.1 percent year on year to 1.05 trillion yuan ($171.6 billion) in the first quarter, while gross expenditure totaled 855.8 billion yuan, up 17.1 percent from a year ago.

China's social insurance funds include five elements: basic pension funds, basic medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work-related injury insurance, and maternity insurance.