China.org.cn | March 20, 2023
Li Chunlin:
I will answer the employment question. Employment is pivotal and fundamental to people's livelihoods. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to stabilizing employment, further implementing the employment-first policy, promoting the gradual stabilization and recovery of the employment situation, and maintaining overall stability. The report at the conference yesterday also mentioned that our goal this year is to create around 12 million new jobs, a net increase of 1 million compared to last year. We are fully confident that we will achieve this goal.
Judging from the situation this year, the external environment has become increasingly volatile and grave. The number of domestic college graduates and urban employment demand has reached new highs, and there are still some pressure and challenges to expand employment opportunities and improve employment quality. However, we should also acknowledge that the continuous efforts and effectiveness of various policies and measures aimed at ensuring stable growth, employment, and prices have taken effect. Businesses, including enterprises, continue to recover and grow, leading to an expansion of labor demand and an increase in employment opportunities, resulting in an increase in jobs and a stable and positive employment situation. Last year we set a goal of creating 11 million new jobs, but we actually achieved 12.06 million, exceeding the planned target by 1 million. This year's goal is to create about 12 million new jobs, which is 1 million more than last year's targe, fully reflecting our confidence and determination to stabilize employment.
The second question you raised about employment is regarding what kind of policies will be introduced to stabilize and maintain it. The Central Economic Work Conference clearly stated that promoting the employment of young people, especially college graduates, should be a top priority. The NDRC will firmly follow the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, intensify our support for employment-oriented macro-regulation policies, and take well-coordinated steps toward the promotion of "job expansion, job stabilization, services, and entrepreneurship" to facilitate high-quality and full employment of young people, including college graduates. We will focus on four key aspects.
First, we will focus on expanding the market-oriented employment of college graduates. We will proactively expand effective investment, accelerate the recovery in consumption of consumer services, and expand market-oriented employment space by increasing domestic effective demand. We will encourage the manufacturing industry's high-end, intelligent, and green development, promote the deep integration of modern services with advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture, and create more knowledge-based and technical jobs. We will provide stable employment for college graduates and young people with specific technical expertise.
Second, we will focus on accelerating the efforts to ease the difficulties faced by enterprises and self-employed individuals. We will promptly adjust, optimize and effectively implement policies that alleviate burdens and difficulties, continue to reduce costs, strengthen the security of energy resources and important industrial and supply chains, promote the integration and sharing of credit information related to enterprises, enhance the financial service capabilities for MSMEs, promote the recovery and development of business entities, and improve employment absorption capacity.
Third, we will focus on strengthening employment services for young people. We will increase efforts and improve mechanisms to provide precise, efficient, and continuous employment services for college graduates, as well as provide comprehensive support for young people facing employment difficulties. We will deepen industry-education integration and school-enterprise cooperation for vocational education, promote the joint-construction and sharing of vocational skills training resources, enhance the skills of young people, including college graduates, and closely align what students have learned with market needs.
Fourth, we will focus on unleashing the vitality of youth innovation and entrepreneurship. We will give full play to the leading and serving role of the demonstration bases for innovation and business startups and promote the opening and sharing of entrepreneurial resources. We will strengthen the construction of entrepreneurial parks for people returning or moving to the countryside and guide college students interested in and capable of starting a business to return to their rural hometowns or settle in rural areas to start their own businesses. We will make a big push to develop the digital economy, enhance regular supervision, support platform enterprises to play a greater role in driving development and creating jobs, and encourage young people to rely on platforms to start their own businesses and find flexible employment opportunities. Thank you all.