Xi stresses promoting high-quality, sufficient employment

BEIJING -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has urged efforts to promote high-quality and sufficient employment, and continuously enhance the sense of fulfillment, happiness and security among workers.

Xi made the remarks on Monday while presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi said China must apply people-centered development philosophy, and improve both the quality and quantity of jobs through specific pro-employment policies.

Mo Rong, head of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security, gave a lecture on the high-quality and sufficient employment issue at the study session and put forth relevant suggestions.

The attendees listened attentively to Mo and then made discussions.

Since the CPC's 18th National Congress was held in 2012, employment has been a priority for the Party leadership in the governance of the country, with 13 million urban jobs created each year on average.

Xi noted that employment is the most basic part of the people's well-being, which is connected with the people's immediate interests, and the country's sound economic and social development as well as its long-term peace and stability.

Valuable experience has been gained through practice, such as relying on development to promote employment, targeting key groups to increase employment, and driving employment through entrepreneurship, Xi said, calling for long-term implementation and continuous improvement of these practices.

This year, China aims to create over 12 million jobs in urban areas and keep the surveyed urban unemployment rate at about 5.5 percent. The country's surveyed urban unemployment rate came in at 5.2 percent in the January-April period.

Xi urged efforts to prioritize high-quality and sufficient employment as a primary goal of economic and social development, and further boost employment through development.

Measures should be taken to develop new quality productive forces according to local conditions as part of the efforts to create more high-quality jobs, he said.

The country should support the growth of industries and enterprises with strong job-creation capacities, and nurture new business forms and models to create more jobs.

Xi also called for the establishment of an employment-friendly development model by strengthening the assessment of the impact of major policies, projects, and the distribution of productive forces on employment, and making fiscal, monetary, investment, consumption, industrial and regional development policies more conducive to creating jobs.

Xi emphasized the need to address the supply-demand imbalance in the workforce which leads to structural unemployment.

Efforts should be focused on analyzing and assessing the workforce development trends, and accordingly adjust higher education majors and the distribution of resources, he said.

It is also imperative to boost vocational education and improve the country's lifelong vocational training system, Xi noted.

He called for efforts to find out the root causes of labor shortages in certain sectors in order to better meet employment market demands.

Xi specifically stressed improving employment support policies for college graduates and other young people. China is expected to see over 11.7 million college graduates this year.

Multiple measures should be taken to promote the employment of migrant workers, stabilize the number and income of people who were lifted out of poverty, and provide more help to groups that find it difficult to secure employment. Meanwhile, attention should also be paid to the employment of ex-service personnel and women.

Xi called for efforts to deepen reform of employment systems and mechanisms, and protect the rights and interests of workers, and urged Party committees and governments at all levels to give top priority to work related with employment.