China has taken a proactive employment policy to increase job opportunities and keep the unemployment rate within a socially tolerable range, says a white paper issued here by the Informa tion Office of the State Council Monday.

The Chinese Government has always regarded promoting employmentas a strategic task for socioeconomic development, says the white paper entitled China's Employment Situation and Policies.

The government enhances the motive power of economic growth in driving employment while maintaining a steady and fairly rapid development of the national economy, says the paper.

The paper says that China persists in taking the development ofthe service industry as a major orientation for the expansion of employment and encourages the development of community services, catering, commercial and trade circulation, tourism, etc., for thepurpose of creating more job opportunities in these industries.

In 2002, the government enacted the policy to support the increase of job opportunities by vigorously developing tertiary industry.

Moreover, the Chinese Government encourages laborers to seek employment through flexible and diverse forms, and actively develops labor-dispatch organizations and employment bases to provide services and assistance for flexible employment.

The government has put in place a medical insurance policy for part-time employees and temporary workers and enacted regulations in respect of labor relations, wage payment, social insurance, etc., to promote and protect the legitimate rights and interests of those who obtained jobs in a flexible manner, says the white paper.

In the past few years, the government has actively fostered anddeveloped the labor market and has gradually established the enterprises' status as the major employers and the laborers' status as the major labor suppliers.

Simultaneously, it has coordinated and propelled reform in the social security system, the residential housing system and the household registration system to create a better environment for labor market development, the white paper says.

Since the late 1990s, the Chinese Government has established a public employment service system. Currently, at both city and district levels in large and medium cities and some small cities, public job agencies have been widely established, which provide employment services to some 20 million people each year, and have found jobs for 10 million people successfully.

In the mid-1980s, an unemployment insurance system was established in China to provide unemployment relief and medicare subsidies to the unemployed. By the end of 2003, 103.73 million people throughout the country had underwritten unemployment insurance policies and 4.15 million people received unemployment insurance pay by the year.

From 1998 to 2003, the accumulative total number of persons laid off from state-owned enterprises was 28.18 million. The Chinese Government again has formulated a set of policies for promoting the reemployment of laid-off persons, including vigorously creating job opportunities, improving reemployment services, increasing financial input for reemployment, and strengthening skill training for reemployment.

From 1998 to 2003, the central budget put aside a total of 73.1billion yuan (about 8.8 billion US dollars) for basic subsistence and reemployment of laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises.

In 2003, with the concerted efforts of governments at all levels throughout the country, jobs were found for 4.4 million laid-off persons, of whom 1.2 million were men over 50 years of age and women over 40 years of age, who had been considered as having difficulties finding reemployment.

Apart from these measures, the government has established reemployment service centers, instituted the supportive policies of reducing and exempting taxes and administrative charges, and extending small security-backed loans for laid-off persons who setup their own businesses.

Various service enterprises and commercial and trading enterprises are be provided with social insurance subsidies if they employ laid-offs from state-owned enterprises for newly created posts, says the white paper.

The Chinese Government has explored a social security system independent of enterprises and public institutions. Since 1998, a system of continuation of social insurance relations for laid-off and unemployed persons has been in place.

To ensure laborers' rights of employment, the Chinese Government has urged enterprises to earnestly implement the stipulations specified in laws and regulations concerning equal employment, rectified all acts of discrimination in the labor market, and banned all employment advertisements containing discriminating content in the media.

The government has continuously improved the state, industrial and local standards in respect of job safety and hygiene. It promulgated the standards for the job safety and hygiene administrative system in 1999. In 2003, the State Council promulgated the "Regulations Concerning Insurance for Work-related Injuries," which became effective as of January 1, 2004.

Source: Xinhua