At the same time, the urban labour market expanded considerably due to increasing rural-to-urban migration, and exceeded 300 million people in 2008, when the global financial crisis occurred. Figure 3.3 presents the annual rate of wage growth since 2002 and its acceleration in recent years, in both real and nominal terms. This evolution has been accompanied frequently by labour shortages. According to the NBS (2009), the total number of migrants increased to 150.97 million during the first half of 2009, with 2.6% growth in the second quarter compared to the first quarter.