Domestic job market remains stable in first half

The domestic job market remained stable in the first half of the year with the unemployment rate controlled within a reasonable range, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Friday.

According to the ministry, about 6.78 million people landed jobs in urban areas from January to June, which is 57 percent of the year's target.

The surveyed unemployment rate in June fell to 5.2 percent, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points year-on-year.

Early on Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics released a report saying that the nation's average surveyed unemployment rate was 5.3 percent in the first half of the year, while the number was 5.7 percent in the same period of the previous year.

Chen Yongjia, the ministry's deputy director of the employment promotion department, said the job market will remain stable thanks to the recovering economy and supportive policies promoting employment.

"However, the world faces complicated political and economic situations and the nation has a still-unstable foundation for a sustained recovery and development of the economy, which bring about difficulties for business operations and increase job-hunting pressures for certain groups of job-seekers, especially youths and college graduates," he said.

According to him, the ministry will continue to prioritize and implement the employment-first policy to reach the year's employment target — creating 12 million urban jobs — and stabilize the whole job market.

"We will relax the market entry standard and improve supportive policies including soft loans, entrepreneurship training courses and guidance to encourage more people to make innovations and start their own businesses," he said.

"Tailored services will also be available to college graduates with difficulties landing jobs and to long-term unemployed youths. We are also making preparations for the employment promotion work for college students projected to graduate next year."

According to the ministry, it has spent 52.8 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) on employment subsidies for individuals and employers in the past six months.

The ministry has collected 683,000 internship positions for college students and people with difficulties landing jobs by the end of June, and 519,000 people took these positions.

Also, the ministry released the nation's first regulation on human resources agencies management in late June to improve service standards, legal liabilities and government supervision over these agencies and platforms to better secure people's working rights.