China News Service, September 18. Meng Wei, spokesperson of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced on the 18th that judging from the current situation, the domestic employment situation is generally stable. From January to August, 9.84 million new jobs were created in urban areas across the country, completing 89.5% of the full-year target; in August, the national urban surveyed unemployment rate was 5.2%, down 0.1 percentage points from July. Both July and August were lower than the control target of 5.5%.

Data map: The scene of the special interview event for graduates. Photo by China News Service reporter Zhai Yujia

Meng Wei said that judging from the current situation, the domestic employment situation is generally stable, which can be seen from three aspects:

Steady growth in new jobs: From January to August, 9.84 million new jobs were created in cities and towns across the country, completing 89.5% of the annual target; in August, the national urban surveyed unemployment rate was 5.2%, down 0.1 percentage points from July, and both July and August were lower than the 5.5% control target.

The market supply and demand are basically balanced: Judging from the survey, the job vacancy ratio in the human resources market in 11 provinces and cities including Guangdong is still higher than 1, and the demand for jobs is greater than the number of job seekers.

The employment of key groups is generally stable: as of July 1, the employment rate of college graduates in 2019 was 68.3%, basically the same as the same period last year; at the end of the second quarter, the total number of rural migrant workers reached 180 million, an increase of 2.26 million year-on-year; as of the end of July, a total of 10.96 million registered poor laborers had been assisted to find employment, an increase of 1.08 million from the end of last year.

Meng Wei pointed out that due to the impact of Sino-US economic and trade frictions and economic downward pressure, structural contradictions in employment have increased, and recruitment demand in some industries has declined. As the lagging effects gradually emerge, stabilizing employment faces certain pressures.

She emphasized that overall, employment stabilization has a solid foundation and good conditions. At present, the domestic economy is still running within a reasonable range, the service industry with large employment capacity is developing rapidly, and the driving role of innovation and entrepreneurship is constantly increasing. At the same time, the country has formed a relatively complete employment and entrepreneurship policy and service system, which have provided strong support for achieving higher quality and fuller employment.

Meng Wei said that since the beginning of this year, the State Council and relevant departments have successively introduced and implemented a number of policy measures to stabilize employment, including tax cuts and fee reductions, aid to enterprises to stabilize jobs, vocational training, and expansion of higher vocational enrollment, and the effects have gradually emerged. In the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will continue to regard stabilizing employment as the lower limit of macro-control and the first of the "six stability", and work with relevant departments to conscientiously implement the employment priority strategy, insist on focusing on key points and precise implementation of policies, and while implementing established policies, further improve response measures and adopt a multi-pronged approach to stabilize and expand employment. There are mainly four aspects of work:

Promoting employment through entrepreneurship. Deepen the reform of “decentralization, regulation and services”, lower the threshold for entrepreneurship and innovation, give play to the leading role of the “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” demonstration base, and further promote innovation and entrepreneurship. We will further advance the pilot work on returning to hometowns to start businesses, and guide more migrant workers and other personnel to return to their hometowns to start businesses.

Accelerate the implementation of vocational skills improvement actions. Increase investment within the central budget, expand the coverage of public training bases, further promote the construction of industry-education integrated training bases, increase the co-construction and sharing of basic vocational skills training platforms, and enhance vocational skills training capabilities.

Promote the implementation of policies that have been introduced. Together with relevant departments, we will strengthen supervision and guidance to accelerate the implementation of the policies and measures that have been introduced to reduce taxes and fees, and assist enterprises and stabilize jobs and employment.

Establish and improve the employment situation monitoring and analysis mechanism. We should pay close attention to key areas, key industries, key groups and key indicators, make predictions and warnings about large-scale unemployment risks, and improve response plans in a timely manner.