China's employment is under stable growth, and the government will continue to better the job market to secure people a fairer, well-organized and friendlier working environment this year, said a senior official.
Wang Xiaoping, minister of human resources and social security, said at a news conference in Beijing on Sunday that the nation does bear great pressure of stabilizing and expanding the employment because of the increasing population of new college graduates — 12.22 million this year, a large number of rural labor force, and a complicated global landscape, while the economic uptrend and prosperous innovation have consolidated the foundation for employment growth.
"Employment is an important matter not only to the average people, but the national development. The lately released Government Work Report has clarified several employment targets of this year: keeping the urban surveyed unemployment rate around 5.5 percent and letting over 12 million people land jobs in urban areas, showing the nation's stronger resolution of expanding the employment," she said.
She said the ministry will keep prioritizing the work of stabilizing employment, improving people's employment quality and job-related incomes this year.
"We will improve the employment-first policy, and let the employment policy better combine with policies on fiscal, monetary and industrial development to create more high-quality job opportunities. We will better balance the relationship between technology innovation and job market stability, supporting labor-intensive industries to offer jobs and stabilize employment during their transformation and upgrading. It's also of importance to balance the relationship between the applications of new technology and the job relocation of employees," she said.
She added that more supportive policies and financial subsidies will be given to companies in key areas such as manufacturing and services, also to grassroots employers and small and medium-sized companies to encourage them to keep or offer more job opportunities.
She said that the ministry will also organize more vocational and working skills training programs based on market and people's needs, which aims to enhance people's ability to land jobs or start their own businesses, and produce more skilled workers for manufacturing and services sectors.
"We will give stronger support to young entrepreneurs and migrant workers wishing to start businesses by providing them improved public services and low-interest loans," she said, adding that the ministry will pay more attention to key groups including college graduates, migrant workers at older ages, demobilized military personnel and people with difficulties to land jobs due to health or financial conditions, or poor working skills.
"What's more, we will tighten the management and supervision over the job market to create a fairer and well-organized working environment. The flexible workers and those in new forms of employment will get more sound working rights protection, while employers' illegal or improper behaviors such as job discrimination and fraud will be strictly cracked down," she said.
