Average wage per-capita for Chinese urban employees grew year on year 12.9 percent to 14,638 yuan in the first half despite the financial crisis slowing the country's economic growth to 7.1 percent from 9 percent in the same period last year.

The growth rate, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday, was 5.1 percentage points lower than that in the same period last year.

Average wage per-capita for financial industry employees in urban areas stood at 30,603 yuan in the first half, ranking the first among all urban industries' employees, NBS said.