China to steadily improve social security benefits

BEIJING -- China will steadily improve its social security benefits and other social safety-net programs during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), a plan released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced Wednesday.

By 2025, the country's basic old-age insurance coverage will reach 95 percent, the plan said.

In the five years, China plans to establish a basic pension scheme for enterprise employees under unified national management and boost the supplementary pension fund to over 4 trillion yuan (about 619 billion U.S. dollars).

Efforts would gradually raise the retirement age and increase unemployment insurance and work-related injury insurance coverage to 230 million and 280 million, respectively, it said.

From 2021 to 2025, China aims to create more than 50 million new urban jobs, keep its surveyed urban unemployment rate within 5.5 percent, and subsidize professional training programs with 75 million attendances.

The country will also move faster to train technicians and skilled workers, improve the income distribution system, create harmonious and stable labor relations, and enhance public service regarding human resources and social security, said the document.

China's surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 5.6 percent in 2020. In May, the rate came in at 5 percent, 0.9 percentage points lower than the same period last year, the latest data showed.