Two sessions to protect job stability
Deputies, political representatives give prescriptions for employment
Employment has become the uppermost priority at this year’s two sessions – even more than setting a GDP growth target – underscoring the rising pressure on China’s job market, but deputies and political representatives are proposing policies that will ensure stability in the labor market.
In his suggestion, Wu Yunbo, a National People’s Congress deputy from North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, called for the government to help young people who grew up in villages find employment back home, which would also support the development and revitalization of rural areas.
“There is a talent shortfall in rural pastoral areas, but only talent can bring development and prosperity to villages,” he told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“Townships and villages can absorb many working-age people. China has more than 700,000 villages and if each village can take in 10 workers, that is a lot of job creation,” Wu said. Each village “can provide many positions, such as technical personnel with knowledge of soil improvement, farming, livestock husbandry management, finance and medicine.”
He suggested the country sign agreements with the young people and offer administrative rewards based on the concrete changes they bring to villages.
Fu Jun, chairman of Macrolink Group who is also a member of the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference, suggested that the government should increase investment in the new infrastructure sector to create jobs, and upgrade the existing job market structure.
Strengthening new infrastructure development could empower traditional industries and realize innovative transformation, he told the China Economic Weekly.
China’s job sector is facing huge pressure brought about by the COVID-19 and an economic growth slowdown that began in 2018. This combination has drawn some doubt in the Western media about whether China could reach its employment target.
The pressure is intense as the surveyed unemployment rate hit 6.2 percent in February – the highest in at least a decade. About 50 million migrant workers were kept at home due to pandemic prevention measures. In addition, there will be 8.74 million new graduates in the coming weeks.
“From consumption to investment and exports, the three major components of GDP in China have been simultaneously affected by the pandemic, resulting in severe job losses and unprecedented pressure,” Tian Yun, vice director of the Beijing Economic Operation Association, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
In the government work report on Friday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that “this year, we must give priority to stabilizing employment and ensuring living standards…We will strengthen the employment-first policy with comprehensive measures.”
These measures include a 2.5 trillion ($350 billion) tax cut, a 1 trillion yuan government spending, and 1 trillion yuan worth of government bonds, as well as prudent monetary policy that’s conducted in a more flexible and appropriate way, and other financing support such as preferential loans.
“For hedging the pressure on employment, the measures and intensity introduced by the central government are also unseen before,” Tian noted.
“China has the largest employment in the manufacturing sector, so as long as the manufacturing sector is stable, employment will be also stable,” Zhou Dewen, deputy director of the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, told the Global Times.