China to stabilize employment
China’s newly employed workers dropped again in April after rebounding in the first quarter. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has promised to use the unemployment insurance fund to stabilize the situation.
New employment in urban areas in April dropped more than 10 percent in eastern regions. In Shanghai, the decline reached 45 percent, in Fujian province, 23 percent.
The registered urban unemployment rate hit just over 4 percent, the highest in four years. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security says it will use 30 to 40 billion yuan in the unemployment insurance fund to stabilize employment.
Zuo Chunwen, dept. director of Ministry of HR& Social Security, “we will move forward our frontier of unemployment insurance. It used to be given to people who lost their jobs. We will now use it to keep workers employed.”
China’s unemployment insurance fund reached 131 billion yuan at the end of last year. The system covered 124 million people. The Ministry says it will use the fund to encourage enterprises to retain positions through training, adjusted working hours, and negotiating salaries.
The Ministry says local governments should launch policies to both increase and stabilize jobs. The focus should be on graduates, search services and essential training.