Significant efforts are being made in China to create 9 million
new jobs in cities and towns and another 5 million for laid-off
workers this year, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said
Wednesday.
It said in a report the country is focusing on generating jobs
for unemployed college graduates and migrant workers. Acute
unemployment in those two groups has aroused great social concern
in recent years.
The ministry said college graduates, who were flooding the
employment market, should look to less dynamic western regions and
small cities for employment as there was intense competition in the
likes of Beijing and Shanghai.
Additional training, internships and employment information
would be provided for the jobless, said the ministry. They also aim
to train 8 million migrant workers this year helping them to
improve their skills which will make them more competitive in the
job market.
China's registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.2 percent
at the end of June which is lower than the 4.6 percent the
government had predicted. In the first half of the year China
created 130,000 more jobs than in the same period of last year, the
report said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2006)