China can handle impacts to employment brought about by trade spat: NDRC

China is totally capable of handling all kinds of risks and challenges to ensure stable employment across the country, the nation’s top economic planning department said on Wednesday.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that it will enhance its monitoring of key regions such as Northeast China and key groups such as employees who might be affected by trade frictions with the US. Meanwhile, it will implement a recently released policy on boosting real economy growth and securing employment.

The heightened trade tensions with the US in recent months have brought some uncertainties to stable growth in Chinese employment, yet handling the dispute is ultimately about doing one’s job well, said Ha Zengyou, an NDRC inspector, on Wednesday.

Boosting the Chinese government’s confidence is the fact that growth in China today is mainly being propelled by expanding domestic demand, rather than net exports of goods and services, said the official.

Key regions monitored include those afflicted by industrial overcapacity or those that are export-led, while groups worthy of government attention include college graduates, rural workers, laid-off workers and those who could fall victim to the trade row in the future, NDRC said.

Unemployment insurance funds totaled 560 billion yuan ($82.68 billion) as of the end of May. These funds will provide some cushion to workers affected by the trade row, said the NDRC.

However, China’s employment is solid at the moment. Surveyed urban unemployment rates were at 4.8 percent in June, the lowest level since data was made available in 2016, while registered unemployment rates for the second quarter were at 3.83 percent, down 0.12 percentage points from 2017 and reaching a multi-year low, the NDRC said.