SHANGHAI: More than a quarter of a million migrant workers in the city lost their jobs in the first three months this year.

The number of migrant workers in Shanghai's social security system dropped to 3.57 million in March, from 3.83 million at the end of 2008, Zhou Haiyang, director of Shanghai municipal human resources and social security bureau, told the standing committee of Shanghai municipal people's congress.

While some returned home or went elsewhere to look for work, 166,000 unemployed migrant workers were still in Shanghai at the end of March, though they were 36 percent fewer than at the end of February, he said.