Employment remains key national priority

BEIJING: China will embrace a talent dividend to boost economic development, while the implementation of the employment-first policy remains one of the government’s top priorities to stabilize the job market, said Premier Li Qiang.
Li said at a news conference on Monday in Beijing that employment is the foundation of people’s livelihoods, and the fundamental method to increase employment is by boosting the economy. On March 5, the newly delivered Government Work Report set the year’s target to create 12 million new jobs in urban areas. The domestic job market was stable last year although a slight fluctuation was registered due to the COVID-19 epidemic, with about 12.06 million people landing jobs in urban areas, outnumbering the year’s target of 11 million, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. To further expand employment, Li stressed that the nation will continue comprehensively implementing the employment-first policy with more supportive policies on employment services and skills training this year. New forms of employment like flexible employment will be part of the greater support from the government this year, while it will be managed with stricter regulation and standards in a bid to achieve healthier development. So far, the nation has one-seventh of its population — roughly 200 million people — with flexible jobs, according to the human resources and social security ministry.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item