BEIJING - Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang on Thursday called for intensified efforts to generate jobs in 2012 in the face of a severe employment situation.

Governments at all levels must work to stabilize and increase employment next year, generate jobs through various channels, support the development of labor-intensive and knowledge-intensive industries, as well as the service sector, Zhang said at a national work conference on human resources and social security.

Local authorities should fully tap small- and medium-sized enterprises in job creation, provide vocational training, improve social security safety net, and accelerate the extension of pension insurance to cover all rural and urban residents, Zhang said.

He also asked local governments to help establish harmonious labor relations, protect employees' legitimate rights, and solve problems that concern most laborers, especially migrant workers.

China managed to keep its registered urban unemployment rate below the government's full-year target of 4.6 percent this year, after it created more than 12 million new jobs in non-farming sectors, according to Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security.