What’s new: Premier Li Keqiang said China will try to facilitate a net increase of more than 10,000 new companies per day this year on average to stabilize employment, maintaining the same pace as last year despite the impact of Covid-19.
Li made the remarks on Thursday at a news conference following the closing ceremony of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, in Beijing.
“In order to retain existing jobs, all our pro-job measures will be fully employed with the largest input of funds,” said Li. “We also need to do our best to create new jobs.”
Li said the government will ramp up supportive measures for the labor market, such as tax and fee cuts and financing labor training. He said the government will use money from its unemployment insurance funds to provide vocational training to some 35 million people for this year and the next.
What’s the background: The government expects to see an official surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 6% this year, up from around 5.5% in 2019, according to this year’s government work report. Li said Thursday that the target was set according to the situation on the ground given the 6% unemployment rate in April reported by China’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Related: Li Keqiang Touches on GDP Target, U.S. Ties, Hong Kong in Press Conference
Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com) and editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)
