China Sees Employment Remaining Largely Stable This Year

(Bloomberg) -- China’s employment situation is expected to stay generally stable this year but challenges and uncertainties will persist since the economy’s recovery isn’t yet on a solid footing, a senior official in the human resources ministry said Thursday.

The country needs to strengthen efforts to stabilize employment and be more targeted and effective when implementing “jobs-first” policies, Li Zhong, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, told reporters in Beijing Thursday.

Job-support measures include providing subsidies to enterprises to encourage them not to fire employees or to lay off fewer employees, especially those in catering, hotels, tourism and transport industries. The State Council, China’s equivalent of a cabinet, said last week it will extend some job-support policies until the end of this year and increase financial aid to sectors that are still suffering because of the pandemic.

China created 4.37 million new urban jobs in the January-April period, with the jobless rate dropping to 5.1% in April.

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