Innovation, flexibility needed to keep job market stable

In the first three quarters of this year, China created 10.45 million urban jobs, achieving 95 percent of the whole year”s target.

China’s overall employment situation has remained stable this year, and the full-year employment goal is expected to be realized before the end of the fourth quarter. At a time when concerted efforts are being made to promote higher-quality development, China should stick to the policy of giving priority to stable employment and people’s well-being.

Employment is linked to economic development. And China follows a macroeconomic policy aimed at stabilizing the job market and increasing employment. It uses employment indicators as an important basis for adjusting macroeconomic regulations, and fiscal, financial, investment, consumption, industrial and other policies to boost employment.

However, its goal of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and realizing carbon neutrality before 2060 will lead to the closure of some backward and energy-intensive industries which generally are labor-intensive. Therefore, China needs to help workers in these industries find new jobs.

Also, more flexible measures should be taken to reduce the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment, especially in the service sector that employs a large number of people.

This year has seen the creation of millions of jobs for graduates, migrant workers and other groups. The country has increased assistance to those who have graduated from school but are yet to find a job, so that they can be gainfully employed. Despite that, the youth unemployment rate reached 14.6 percent in September, indicating a number of young people still face difficulties in finding a job.

The country needs to strengthen its vocational skills training, so that more young people have the skills and ability demanded by employers for different types of jobs.

In the first three quarters of this year, the rapid development of the service industry and the use of various policies to promote flexible employment have increased employment. But flexible employment has some problems such as inadequate protection of workers’ rights and interests. Since the second half of this year, a number of policies on flexible employment have been released, which highlight some issues of public concern such as unclear labor relations.

Also, to promote the sound development of the digital economy, the country needs to promote flexible employment, and encourage more people to engage in new types of businesses.