China aims to add over 12 million new urban jobs in 2024, setting urban unemployment rate of around 5.5%

China’s central government aims to create over 12 million new urban jobs in 2024, with surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 5.5 percent, according to the Government Work Report delivered by Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on Tuesday.

The premier stressed a greater priority to employment, vowing to better leverage fiscal, tax, financial, and other policies to stabilize employment, and roll out more targeted policies to boost employment this year.

To maintain a stable employment market, we will implement and improve policies on unemployment insurance premium refunds, special loans, and employment and social insurance subsidies, and we will provide more support to sectors and enterprises with a large capacity for creating jobs, the premier said.

Over 11.7 million students are due to graduate from college this year, and we must do more to promote employment for young people and provide better guidance and services to help them secure jobs or start businesses. We will also take solid steps to ensure employment for ex-service members, rural migrant workers, and other groups. More employment assistance will be provided to jobseekers facing difficulties in securing employment including people with disabilities, Li said.

We will improve services and assistance for people in flexible employment based on their type of employment and expand trials of occupational injury insurance for people in new forms of employment. We will take resolute steps against all forms of employment discrimination and ensure that the wages of rural migrant workers are paid. We will improve the consultation and mediation mechanisms for labor relations to protect the lawful rights and interests of workers, the premier added.

We will enhance vocational skills training to meet job demands in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, modern services, and elderly care. We will work to increase the incomes of urban and rural residents through multiple channels, expand the size of the middle-income group, and increase the incomes of low-income earners, he continued.

“The goal of newly-added urban jobs and unemployment rate are set in line with the job market situation faced by the economy in 2024, as the number of fresh graduates will hit a record high this year,” Li Changan, a professor from the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The first and foremost method of creating more jobs is promoting economic growth, and the GDP target of around 5 percent this year is expected to serve this purpose, Li Changan said.

In addition, the authorities should do more to stimulate the vitality of market entities and ensure macro-economic consistency so as to embody their priority on employment, he said.

With a strong emphasis on maintaining stable employment, Chinese authorities adopted policies to support enterprises in stabilizing and expanding employment and improved services to help college graduates and other key groups secure employment. Over 33 million people who had been lifted out of poverty found jobs last year, noted the report.

China created a total of 12.44 million urban jobs in 2023, and the average surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2 percent, official data showed.