Job market on track to hit employment target

The domestic job market has been running smoothly in the past nine months thanks to government efforts in improving job-seekers' skills, cracking down on companies in arrears of wage payments and implementing campaigns to help college graduates land jobs.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Wednesday show around 10.45 million people landed jobs in urban areas from January to September. The figure is 95 percent of the nation's target of creating 11 million new jobs in urban areas in 2021.

The average unemployment rate in the third quarter of the year — from July to September — has also fallen below the level before the novel coronavirus pandemic, the ministry said.

In the third quarter, the average surveyed unemployment rate was 5 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from the same period in 2019. September, for example, saw the surveyed unemployment rate standing at 4.9 percent, decreasing 0.5 percentage points from 2020.

Lu Aihong, the ministry's spokesperson, said at an online news conference on Wednesday the job market shows stable labor relations, as the ministry has stressed protecting the rights of flex workers and enhanced supervision over companies' illegally defaulting on wages.

"In the past three quarters, social security supervision bureaus at different levels have examined over 771,000 companies nationwide and investigated 43,000 cases of wage defaults," he said. "About 498,000 workers won their unpaid salaries back, totaling 5.04 billion yuan ($790 million)."

Song Xin, the ministry's deputy director of employment promotion, said at the news conference though the overall picture of employment is projected to remain stable in the near future, uncertainties from the global landscape and domestic economy may bring risks to the job market.

He said to maintain the good momentum the job market has shown, it's of great importance to make the employment of college graduates a priority of the ministry's work.

"Securing the employment of college graduates has a close relationship to letting the group realize their personal value, which is also significant to the nation's social benefits and future development," he said.

He added the ministry has so far helped 1.16 million college graduates find jobs this year. To those who had difficulties landing jobs, the ministry has guided them to register at the official website to offer them job information in a timely manner.

Improving graduates' working skills is also important in helping them land jobs, Song said. He added the ministry has so far organized internships for about 330,000 college graduates and given online courses to the group, teaching them how to get used to the workplace.

"There is still a large number in the group still seeking jobs, while the job market will soon embrace more new graduates next year. We'll try our best to help them either to find a job or offer them assistance to start their own businesses to let their talent pay off," Song said.