(Photo/Xinhua)

While enjoying a generally stable job market, China created 10.97 million urban jobs from January to September 2019, close to the year’s target, according to a news conference held by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) on Monday.

The overall employment situation will remain stable in the fourth quarter, said Zhang Ying, an official of the MHRSS, who added that it’s likely that the country will achieve this year’s urban job creation target ahead of schedule and keep the registered urban unemployment rate and surveyed urban unemployment rate below target figures.

The positive outlook of the job market is based on the solid foundation laid in the first three quarters. The country has taken powerful measures to stabilize employment.

The policy measures to stabilize employment continue to take effect. From January to September, 750,000 enterprises without or with few layoffs got a refund of their unemployment insurance premiums amounting to 27.5 billion yuan (about $3.89 billion), benefiting 39.93 million employees.

During the same period, 810,000 people got subsidies worth 1.29 billion yuan for improvement of vocational skills.

Key employment indicators run within a reasonable range. The registered urban jobless rate in Q3 stood at 3.61 percent, down 0.21 percentage points from the same time last year. Surveyed urban unemployment rate in September came in at 5.2 percent, lower than the target at 5.5 percent.

The relationship between the demand for and supply of labor is stable. In Q3, the ratio of jobs to job hunters stood at 1.24 in 100 cities.

Job market enjoys a solid foundation. From January to September, 1.33 million people having difficulties securing jobs were employed, outnumbering the year’s target of 1.3 million people.

The employment rate of college graduates in 2019 remains generally the same as those of the past years. The stable employment of key groups well underpinned the overall stability of the employment market.

The overall stability in the job market offers Chinese economy solid foundation and considerable wiggle room for coping with downturn pressure and external impacts, said Liu Yuanchun, Vice President of Renmin University of China.

The MHRSS will continue prioritizing employment policies and trying to highlight and support employment in every aspect, so as to foster a positive interaction between economic development and expansion of employment, Zhang noted.

According to Zhang, efforts will be made to help enterprises stabilize jobs, drive employment by boosting dynamism in starting businesses, conduct extensive vocational skills training, intensify recruitment activities, and ensure people’s basic living needs are met.

The country will continue implementing policies on stabilizing and supporting employment for enterprises by ensuring that companies with few or no layoffs can take moreunemployment insurance premiums back, and granting companies which provide jobs for people having difficulties securing employment with subsidies for social insurance and loan interests, as well as tax reduction exemption.

The country will also intensify efforts to support key groups such as college graduates, people who look to change jobs, laid-off workers, and rural migrant workers to starting businesses, by putting into practice relevant policies on guaranteed start-up loans, rewards and subsidies for startup incubation bases, and subsidies for startups.

It will constantly press ahead with vocational education and training programs while giving priority to the training for enterprise employees, key groups, and impoverished labor force.

The country will hold intensive recruitment activities from October 21 to November 21.

Besides, from November to December, it will roll out such activities as employment service week for college graduates, special job fairs for centrally-administered state-owned enterprises and college graduates in northwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai province, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, fully starting the employment services for college students graduating in 2020.

China will carry out “one-on-one” targeted assistance for jobseekers facing difficulties in securing employment in an effort to help zero-employment families. The country has also pledged to give out unemployment insurance benefits in time to unemployed people that are underprivileged so as to ensure their basic living standards.