China pursues significant scale of new urban jobs in next five years

BEIJING -- China aims to create a considerable scale of urban jobs and keep the urban surveyed unemployment rate within 5.5 percent over the next five years, according to a human resources and social security development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) unveiled on Thursday.

The plan, released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, also outlines specific targets for reemployment, including helping 25 million unemployed urban workers find new jobs and providing employment assistance to 6.5 million people with difficulties finding work.

In terms of social security, the plan aims to keep the basic old-age insurance coverage rate above 95 percent.

It also targets the number of participants covered by unemployment insurance and work-related injury insurance, with occupational injury protection included, to reach 255 million and 345 million, respectively.

The scale of enterprise annuity funds or occupational pension funds is expected to exceed 9 trillion yuan ($1.32 trillion), the plan notes.

Regarding vocational training, the plan calls for providing more than 50 million subsidized vocational training opportunities, including 17.5 million training participations among rural migrant workers.

Other key targets include issuing professional qualification certificates to 14 million people, sustaining an annual recruitment of 35,000 postdoctoral researchers, and enrolling 90 percent of the population in the electronic social security card system by the end of the five-year period.

The plan also outlines measures for promoting high-quality and full employment, improving the salary and income distribution system, fostering harmonious labor relations, and comprehensively enhancing the quality and efficiency of public services.