China to unveil timely measures to stabilize employment: official

A staff member briefs policies to residents at an employment service center of a relocation site for poverty alleviation in Xingye County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Jan. 18, 2022. [Xinhua/Cao Yiming]

BEIJING -- China will roll out effective measures in time to stabilize employment in a bid to safeguard and improve people's livelihood, a senior official has said.

"The country's employment situation has remained generally stable since the beginning of this year," Yu Jiadong, vice minister of human resources and social security, told Xinhua in an interview.

According to official data, 4.06 million new urban jobs were created in the first four months, and China's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent in the first quarter, within the expected target.

However, employment data has fluctuated since March, as a series of factors including the COVID-19 resurgence weighed on China's job market.

Noting that stable employment is a key factor for the economy to function within an appropriate range, Yu called for strengthening the employment-first policy by fully implementing relevant employment measures.

"The top priority is to ensure employment of key groups such as college graduates and migrant workers," Yu said.

China will see the number of new graduates from the country's universities and colleges in 2022 exceed 10 million for the first time, hitting a historic high.

China will expand employment channels for college graduates through multiple measures such as using job-creation subsidies to encourage firms to increase hiring or helping graduates start their own businesses by offering loan support, Yu noted.

Various online recruitment activities will be launched to provide adequate information to the graduates, training courses will be designed to enhance their skills, and targeted services will be offered to graduates experiencing difficulties, Yu said.

For boosting employment among those that had shaken off poverty, Yu urged efforts to deepen labor cooperation between eastern and western regions, develop distinctive industries in regions having been lifted out of poverty, and help cultivate business startups, among other moves.

A total of 31.35 million people that had shaken off poverty found jobs by end-March, official data showed.

Efforts will also be made to stabilize market entities by offering preferential policies including the deferred payment of social insurance, the vice minister said.

"China's economic fundamentals for long-term growth remain sound and the momentum of sustained economic recovery stays unchanged, laying a solid foundation for employment stability," Yu added.