Govt announces new financial support for youth employment

China's employment and entrepreneurship of youths, especially the fresh graduates, continues to attract attention and support from the government.

Three government departments — the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Finance — jointly released a notice with 17 measures on Friday, aiming to boost the employment of fresh college graduates and youths this year through policy and financial incentives to employers and skills training programs and job services to the students.

Previous data have shown that the nation will see 12.22 million fresh university and college graduates this year, up by 430,000 from 2024.

Under the measures, social organizations hiring fresh college graduates, graduates yet to land jobs within two years or jobless youths aged from 16 to 24 can get same financial subsidies as companies.

The organizations can get a subsidy of 1,500 yuan for per person they hire after signing standard labor contracts and paying them social insurance. The policy will expire on Dec 31 this year.

Also, State-owned companies can apply for capital increase specifically used to hire fresh college graduates, according to the notice, and the policy will expire till Dec 31, 2026.

The government will dispatch officials or invite officials from universities or colleges to companies to help develop more job opportunities for the students. Also, government-sponsored entrepreneurial zones will lower their entry threshold to college graduates and youths to encourage and better support the young people's entrepreneurship.

Working skills training is of great importance to young people's employment, said the notice, thus the government will set up 1,000 sub-majors and 1,000 vocational skills training programs at universities or colleges across the nation. The sub-majors are usually interdisciplinary, which are not for academic purposes, but aiming to diversify students' knowledge and enhancing their professional competence.

More internship opportunities will be collected from companies, research institutes and government bodies, according to the notice, and these positions will be mainly on scientific research, technical engineering and management-related.

The notice said that improved job services and assistance will be available to fresh college graduates and those graduates unable to land jobs. For example, to those college graduates yet to land jobs, the government will offer them services including employment policy explanation, job seeking guidance and job recommendations or internship opportunity.