(Yicai Global) June 2 -- China's express delivery volume jumped to a historic high in the first five months of this year due to the booming online retail sector.

The number of parcels exceeded 40 billion between January and May, about two months earlier than last year, the State Post Bureau said on its website today. In 2017, it took 12 months to reach the same milestone.

In 2021, the total volume is expected to rise above 95 billion pieces, the government agency added. So far this year, the average daily volume has surpassed 266 million pieces. More than 500 million clients were served every day.

Last year, courier companies delivered 83.4 billion parcels, an increase of 31 percent from a year earlier, the bureau announced in January.

China's express delivery sector creates more than 200,000 new jobs each year, Ma Junsheng, director of the SPB, said last September. Since 2014, the sector has created over 1.5 million new jobs in rural areas, Ma added.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi