Interview: China confident in strengthening employment stability, quality: minister

BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- China has strived to promote the steady growth of employment amid increasing uncertainties. It is with full confidence in stabilizing employment in the future and promoting high-quality and sufficient employment, the country's human resources minister has said.

"China's employment situation has generally improved and remained basically stable since the beginning of this year," Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping told Xinhua in an interview.

The country created 10.22 million new urban jobs in the first three quarters, completing 85 percent of the annual target, Wang quoted. By the end of September, the country's surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5 percent, lower than that in the same period in 2019.

Employment of young people including college graduates was basically stable and continued to improve, and the number of rural migrant workers continued to increase this year.

China's 5.2-percent year-on-year GDP growth in the first three quarters, one of the fastest worldwide, was a key factor in stimulating employment growth, Wang said. She also stressed the role of accelerated recovery of the service sector, the added value of which accounted for 55.1 percent of China's GDP in the period, in improving employment.

A string of supportive policies, such as payment return, subsidies and allowances for keeping and adding job posts, as well as professional training, have confirmed the foundation for employment stability.

"We are full of confidence in keeping the employment situation stable in the future as economic recovery continues to consolidate and positive factors for stabilizing employment keep accumulating," Wang said, adding that more work will be done to promote high-quality and sufficient employment to better satisfy people's expectations.

In the next stage, the country will promote the integration of policies in the fields of finance, currency, investment, consumption and education to form a synergy in improving employment.

It will make efforts to match supply and demand of the job market. To expand demand, it will promote coordinated development of the modern industrial system and human resources, support industries and enterprises with strong ability to create jobs and explore new employment growth points in promoting coordinated regional development and rural revitalization.

Meanwhile, it will shore up the development of high-quality technical education, and carry out large-scale special training for enterprise employees and key groups to optimize talent supply, Wang noted.

China will further fine-tune the employment support system for key groups, including young people, rural laborers and people in difficulties to ensure basic livelihood and resolutely prevent and resolve major risks, such as large-scale unemployment.

Noting the steady growth of young population and the continuous increase of college graduates in recent years, Wang made special emphasis on creating more job opportunities for the youth, strengthening professional training and adjusting education plans as well as supporting young entrepreneurs.

Policies will be introduced to encourage enterprises to add job posts and further create job opportunities in the fields of digital and green economy and new consumption. Work will be done to stabilize the supply of jobs related to public services and increase posts such as research assistant and community worker.

To better match the ability of the youth and the demand of enterprises, the country will popularize apprenticeship system in companies and organize large-scale professional training to cultivate a batch of laborers with urgently-needed skills in the short-term.

Eying long-term balance of talent supply and the demand of industrial development, it will improve the linkage mechanism between talent demand and disciplinary adjustment for higher education, Wang said.

The country will also offer a package of support in project selecting, land using, financial services and other fields to young people who start their own businesses or engage in flexible employment.