URUMQI, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has created 151,000 jobs for poverty-stricken households in southern Xinjiang since 2018, according to local authorities.

Xinjiang has taken a series of measures helping poverty-stricken residents find jobs in their hometowns or other areas in the region and get rid of poverty in accordance with their intentions, according to the spokesperson for the information office of the regional government.

Since 2018, 14,700 people in southern Xinjiang have found jobs in enterprises of provinces or cities which have pairing-up aid programs with the region.

Many poverty-stricken residents in southern Xinjiang tend to work in other provincial-level regions mainly because they want to learn skills and broaden their horizons, said the spokesperson.

Xinjiang has implemented a string of supportive measures to boost employment, such as providing loans and subsidies and cutting taxes for those who set up small and micro-enterprises or are engaged in self-employed business.

Creating jobs has been a top priority for Xinjiang to enhance people's wellbeing and fight poverty. Official statistics showed that a total of 645,000 people were estimated to have cast off poverty in the autonomous region in 2019. The region is determined to eradicate absolute poverty by lifting the remaining 165,800 people out of poverty this year.