China's job market offered a satisfactory answer sheet in the first half of this year by the joint efforts of various related departments across the country. The number of newly employed people was 5.9 million, reaching 65 per cent of the 9-million target set for the year. The reemployment number of laid-off workers with reemployment preferential certificates was 2.84 million, of which 570,000 workers are aged between 40-50.

By the end of June, 8.37 million registered jobless in urban areas in the country and the registered jobless rate was 4.3 per cent, equal to the rate by the end of last year. Various measures to improve employment and reemployment in the macro-controls start to bring active results, a stable situation gained in employment market.

Every effort was made to bring various employment measures into play.
Employment is the basis for the life of people. At the beginning of this year, the State set a target to increase 9 million job opportunities. The registered jobless rate in urban areas is to be controlled within 4.7 per cent. To realize this target the related departments across the nation have taken active actions to carry out all policies for boosting employment and reemployment so that the active effect in macro controls can be released.

The plans and targets for employment and reemployment are implemented in every part of the country. More than 30 provincial people's governments ascertained their local goals for improving employment, and signed their target responsibility certificates. Many areas and departments worked out a batch of employment policies in accordance with local actualities and summarized good and effective experiences.

It is of vital importance whether or not there are sufficient funds for implementing employment engineering. In May this year, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security had jointly issued a document to earmark special reemployment funds to related local departments and asked them use well the funds and set up mechanisms combining local financial income with reemployment work The provinces including Hubei and Hebei worked out regulations to arrange not less than 1 per cent special reemployment funds in their provincial budgets.

Laid-off workers call small-sum warranty loans as "timely rain". The People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security have worked a complete set of new operational methods, simplified warranty procedures and lower counter-warranty conditions. They have aggrandized credit support to small labor-intensive enterprises. In the first five months of this year, the balance of small-sum warranty loans issued was 590 million yuan with an accumulated balance of 1.22 million yuan. In addition, the macro-control departments have offered more credit to those medium- and small enterprises that received a big amount of job seekers when pracising all-round deflation on credit given to part industries.

Structure adjustment is the main content for the macro-controls. Various localities go all out to control a handful of industries' blind investment with repeated low-level construction. They put emphasis on the development of the tertiary industry, and the labor-intensive trades have been enhanced, which improves the employment and reemployment situation.

Bring the communities into full play and let people know that the Party and the government take care of laid-off workers.

The work of employment and reemployment involves the common people with each having his or her own difficulties and requirements. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security expounded that to bring the communities into full play, the labor and social security institutions of neighborhoods and townships will be established nationwide and become the lowest organs to know what the people need and offer their employment services including job recommendation, technique training, policy consultation and continued insurance.

The city of Taiyuan has established labor and social offices or work spots in all neighborhoods, which set up basic accounts for laid-off workers and offers a series of major obligations including the development of the job vacancies for public welfare.

There are many hidden job vacancies in the communities. The street offices in the Xuanwu District in Beijing offered jobs to 81 workers aged between 40-50 as neighbor-coordinators, labor and social security workers, traffic coordinators and environmental protection supervisors.

According to the statistics by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the labor and social security work of the neighborhoods and communities in the most of provinces has been completed so far. More than 95 per cent of the street offices have established labor and social security organs, and more than 80 per cent of communities have invited special staff. The work wins claims from the public.

To work hard to make employment and reemployment onto a new stage
A related responsible person in charge with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security expressed that the employment situation is still severe although achievements have been made in employment in the first half of the year. It is not allowed to relax in order to realize the year's goal in employment as early as possible.

The responsible person analyzed that there are quite a little difficulties in the employment work at present. The contradictions in employment structure in some fields are still critical. Many newly emerged industries and new enterprises cannot get qualified technical and skilled workers.

Next, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security will improve employment and reemployment from three aspects. First, try to improve employment service levels. The State will go all out to push on the systemization, professionalization and socialization while strengthening the construction of labor market. The ministry will guide local institutions to make full use of resources and service functions and to improve ways of services.

Second, actively push forward reemployment training and cultivate skilled workers. The ministry will push forward the work mechanism to link the reemployment training subsidies with reemployment results.

Macro-controls will exert an obvious influence on employment in the second half of the year. It is a prime task on how to get rid of disadvantageous factors. It is introduced that the Ministry of Labor and Social Security has asked labor and social security institutions at all levels to work out plans and adopt powerful measures to implement various employment policies for employment and support workers with difficulties in employment.
 
(People's Daily  August 14, 2004)