Focus of two sessions should be balancing prevention and control with employment

Beijing’s municipal government announced on Wednesday that it will lower its COVID19 emergency response level at 00:00 hours on Thursday, removing the quarantine requirements for some people arriving from other low-risk parts of the country.

That happened on the same day it was announced that this year’s deferred two sessions are to be held in late May, after being postponed from their usual time in early March because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The country can thus heave a collective sigh of relief as the announcement signals the leadership’s confidence that the efforts to control the virus have been effective.

But as thousands of legislators and political advisers gather in Beijing to review work reports of the central government, top judicial authorities and the annual budget, how to stabilize people’s livelihoods which have been disrupted by the epidemic while cementing the achievements of the anti-virus fight will be among top priorities of the agenda.

Unemployment is one of the pressing problems that now affect our society as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak, which — though now basically contained in China — has left a trail of destruction in its wake, with small and mediumsized enterprises in the service sector being particularly hard hit.

The official surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 5.9 percent in March, down 0.3 percentage points from February. But that barely reflects the whole picture of the stark reality in China’s job market because the figure does not include the country’s 290 million migrant workers. Many of whom have become jobless as factories struggle to resume operations because of either restrictive measures to prevent the spread of the virus or the cancellation of orders due to a sharp drop in demand caused by the pandemic.

In addition to 8.74 million college graduates who will likely enter the job market this year, a new high in recent years, this means the pressure that China faces to create jobs is unprecedentedly high. The slowdown of the national economy, which shrank by 6.8 percent in the first quarter — the first time in decades when a contraction was recorded — will only exacerbate the problem.

The top leadership, of course, is aware of the seriousness of the problem. Thus at a key meeting earlier this month, it was stressed that while making efforts to ensure that there will not be a rebound in infections, stronger macro policy tools, including more proactive fiscal policies, will be employed to steady the fundamentals of the economy and to secure people’s basic livelihoods.

But while channeling capital into the real economy, especially to support medium-sized, small and micro enterprises, it will take time for such policy support at the macro level to benefit individuals at the grassroots level.

So before that happens, officials at the local level must work out commensurate and targeted assistance measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises get back on their feet, and ensure that no one in their jurisdiction falls into poverty because of the lack of a job.

Despite the pandemic and the potential of reforms it has exposed that are waiting to be tapped, no one can be left behind in the national pursuit of a decent life.