Employment stability tops meeting agenda

China will take a series of policy measures to stabilize the job market and help enterprises create more employment opportunities, according to decisions made at the State Council Executive Meeting presided over by Premier Li Qiang on Friday.

Participants at the meeting in the State Council listened to government departments' reports about the current situation in the job market and measures for optimizing some employment-related policies, according to a news release published on Friday evening.

The meeting's participants said that employment is the foundation of people's well-being.

They pledged to further strengthen policy guidance, adjust some current policies, and reduce weak links and fault lines to ensure the stability of the country's overall employment situation.

Measures are needed to maintain the quantity of current jobs, support the creation of new positions, encourage enterprises to increase their staff numbers and improve services for key groups of job hunters such as new university graduates and migrant workers, according to the meeting.

Jobs generated by State-funded entities and government-backed projects will remain stable while the government will use various methods to make it easier to procure gainful employment.

The meeting said more subsidies and assistance would be allocated to the unemployed and those with difficulties finding work.

They said the government will focus on removing institutional obstacles in the job market. More practical steps will be taken to retain the employment scale in the manufacturing sector and international trade sector. Universities will adjust their departments and majors based on considerations for graduates' future employment prospects, while vocational and technical training will be improved to meet market demand, according to the meeting.

More support from macroeconomic and industrial policies will be given to society to foster effective demand, elevate confidence in the market and stabilize businesses' commercial operations to pursue growth in the job market and economic activity, participants said.

The meeting called for careful study and full implementation of the instructions made by President Xi Jinping during his recent inspection tour to Guangdong province.

New breakthroughs must be achieved in terms of deepening reforms, expanding high-quality opening-up, nurturing self-reliance in science and technology, building a modern industrial system, and enhancing integrated development in urban and rural areas to push forward the Chinese path to modernization and make its accomplishments accessible to every citizen, according to the meeting.