BEIJING - Post-quake rehabilitation and rebuilding work has been progressing smoothly since a major earthquake jolted Southwest China three years ago, according to a report issued by researchers Thursday.

Launched by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development and Norway-based Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies, the document features a three-year-long monitoring and research report on the recovery of quake survivors' lives.

Thanks to the rehabilitation and rebuilding efforts, housing facilities and living conditions in the quake-hit region have been remarkably improved, especially in rural areas, and the urban-rural difference in infrastructure has decreased greatly, the report said.

As of August this year, 99.4 percent of quake survivors had been sheltered with permanent houses, it said.

The unemployment rate in the quake zone, which was calculated according to the standards of the International Labour Organization, rests at the relatively low level of 1.5 percent, according to the report.

Furthermore, research shows that the quake survivors' social confidence in others and the government remains at a relatively high level, the report said.

An 8.0-magnitude earthquake jolted southwest Sichuan province and southern parts of western Gansu province on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 80,000 people dead or missing.