Target of 11 million for new urban jobs

China will create more than 11 million new urban jobs this year and keep the urban unemployment rate within 4.5 percent, according to the 2019 Government Work Report.

At the same time, multiple channels will be used to achieve stable and expanding employment in 2019, the report said.

Having taken prompt steps to ease the impact of changes in the external environment on employment, the central government of China will work to ensure employment for key groups such as college graduates, demobilized soldiers and migrant workers, according to the report released on Tuesday.

It said the central government will give stronger support to urban jobseekers facing difficulties in securing jobs, and enterprises hiring impoverished rural people or urban residents who registered as unemployed for at least six months will be given a tax and fee deductions for three years.

The report said employment is the cornerstone of people's wellbeing and source of wealth. In 2019, the government placed the employment-first policy to the status of a macro policy for the first time, to highlight to society the importance of employment and measures to support it.

For the time being and in the short term, the pressure on job creation will continue unabated, the related structural issues will become more apparent and new factors affecting employment will continue to grow.

In response, the report said the government will support flexible and new forms of employment, work to prevent or stop gender and identity discrimination in employment and develop vocational education as one of the ways to ease the pressure on employment.

Examinations and enrolment in vocational colleges will be reformed and improved to encourage more key groups, mentioned above, to apply. Enrolment in vocational colleges in 2019 will increase by 1 million, the report said.

Scholarships and stipends will cover more students at vocational colleges and the standards of financial assistance for these students will also be raised, it said.