China unveils new measures to boost employment

China on Wednesday released a notice on further strengthening policy support for stabilizing employment, outlining measures across seven key areas to stabilize jobs, enterprises, the market and expectations, while promoting high-quality economic development.

Among the measures, the country will expand the scope of special-purpose loans designed to stabilize and boost employment, while improving the accessibility of those loans, according to the document. It noted that micro-sized, small and medium-sized enterprises in key sectors that hire individuals from key groups and comply with relevant social insurance requirements will be eligible for subsidies, with the aim of incentivizing job creation.

The notice also emphasized increasing the proportion of unemployment insurance refunds to support job retention. For micro-sized, small, and medium-sized enterprises, the refund rate will be raised from up to 60 percent to a maximum of 90 percent of the unemployment insurance premiums paid by both employers and employees in the previous year. For large enterprises, the cap will be lifted from 30 percent to 50 percent.

Wednesday's notice comes as China steps up policy support for the job market with the peak hiring season for key job-seeking groups approaching.

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, together with other relevant departments, has introduced a package of targeted policies to strengthen employment support.

These priorities, including unlocking employment potential, expanding job opportunities, supporting key groups, and enhancing vocational training, remain a central focus of the latest notice.

The measures focus on incentivizing enterprises to expand hiring, stabilizing and increasing job creation, and enhancing workers' skills and capacity for employment and entrepreneurship. Collectively, they provide strong backing for improving both the quality and scale of employment, Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The notice also called for intensifying the implementation of work-relief programs by broadening policy coverage and expanding the scale of projects. Local governments are encouraged to plan and roll out a series of small and medium-sized infrastructure projects related to urban-rural integration and agricultural and rural development at the county level.

The scope of social insurance subsidies will be further broadened. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in key industries that sign labor contracts of at least one year with key groups and pay basic pension, medical, and unemployment insurance premiums in accordance with regulations will be eligible for a social insurance subsidy equivalent to 25 percent of the individual contribution. The subsidy will be granted for a period of up to one year, according to the notice.

These projects aim to generate job creation across various stages, from construction and support services to post-project maintenance, while widely absorbing groups such as the unemployed and returning migrant workers.

The notice also highlighted the importance of skills training to enhance employability, with a focus on strengthening support for key groups. It calls for targeted vocational training across diverse fields, including home services and childcare, emerging technologies, and intelligent manufacturing.

Song Xiangqing, vice president of the Commerce Economy Association of China, said that the rapid growth of emerging sectors has generated a significant number of new jobs, while the development of new industries and business models has helped improve job quality and optimized the employment structure.

Efforts should also focus on aligning vocational training and education with the evolving demands of emerging industries, including the development of relevant curricula to cultivate a new generation of skilled talent. "Promoting the integration of traditional industries with emerging sectors will further expand employment opportunities," Song told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The notice called for improving the real-name assistance mechanism for graduates facing difficulties and enhancing the delivery of specialized employment services for disadvantaged groups. It emphasized the need to strengthen employment assistance to safeguard the basic livelihoods of those in need.

Li also noted that the notice underscores continued efforts to provide targeted employment guidance and support for college graduates. The implementation of these new measures is expected to ease job market pressures and promote fuller and higher-quality employment for university graduates, according to Li.

More than 12 million college graduates are expected to enter the job market in 2025, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

China's job market remained generally stable in the first quarter of this year, with 3.08 million new urban jobs created nationwide, 50,000 more than that in the same period of 2024 and progressing ahead of schedule, Yu Jiadong, vice minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, told a press conference.