Chinese job market held steady in first quarter, ministry says

China's job market showed signs of stability in the first quarter of this year thanks to the nation's optimized COVID-19 control policies and a recovering economy, said the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

According to a release published by the ministry on Monday morning, about 2.97 million people successfully landed jobs in urban areas from January to March, about 120,000 more than during the same period last year.

Furthermore, the surveyed unemployment rate was about 5.3 percent, a decrease of 0.5 of a percentage point year-on-year. The rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people who participated in the employment survey in urban areas, including migrant workers in cities.

According to the ministry, recruitment demand increased during the three-month period, with about 58,000 job fairs organized nationwide featuring 380 million vacancies.

"Both the recovering economy and sound employment-first policy have strongly supported our efforts to realize the year's employment target, while the changing international landscape and uncertainties in economic development still pose difficulties to job hunters, especially college graduates," said Chen Yongjia, vice-director of the ministry's employment promotion department at a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

China aims to help 12 million people land jobs in urban areas this year and cap the surveyed unemployment rate at around 5.5 percent.

He said that the ministry will continue to take measures to promote employment, including encouraging companies to create more vacancies by giving them financial incentives and offering low-interest loans to entrepreneurs to support their businesses.

"We will also improve the protection of workers' rights for those who are flexibly employed and give more support and guidance to key groups — for example, college graduates — to help them land jobs," he said.