Li Peng: Implementing the employment priority strategy requires precise efforts for growth | employment | strategy

Employment is the most basic livelihood. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a series of important arrangements for implementing the employment priority strategy. Not long ago, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting emphasizing the need to effectively safeguard and improve people's livelihoods, strengthen employment priority orientation, expand employment channels for college graduates, and stabilize employment for key groups such as migrant workers. In May this year, the national urban survey unemployment rate was 5.2%, unchanged from the previous month, and the employment situation remained generally stable. Our country's economy is still in the process of comprehensive recovery, and stable employment still needs to be guided by the implementation of the employment priority strategy, with the goal of high-quality and full employment, to fully ensure that the employment situation in our country remains stable. To this end, it is necessary to enhance systematic thinking, coordinate relevant work and policies in all aspects, and achieve precise efforts.

Firstly, economic growth is a prerequisite for expanding employment, and stable growth should be regarded as the key to improving employment levels and quality. In promoting high-quality development, we should strengthen the employment priority orientation.We should attach importance to and support the development of industries and enterprises with strong employment absorption capabilities. Due to the impact of the epidemic and other factors, some enterprises are slowly recovering and need more policy support and convenient employment conditions to enhance the confidence of both employment supply and demand sides. Under the guidance of the employment priority strategy, we should promote the coordinated efforts of fiscal, monetary and other related structural adjustment policies to stabilize growth and employment policies, with a focus on supporting the stable and expanded employment of new service industries and small and micro enterprises with large employment capacity. To continuously strengthen the real economy, create more high-quality employment opportunities, and promote the formation of a virtuous cycle of high-quality development and employment expansion and improvement, promoting mutual progress.

Secondly, accelerate the adjustment and optimization of the education system and structure, and enhance the compatibility between the supply of professional talents and the demand for economic development. China has shifted towards a stage of high-quality development, with rapid changes in technology and industrial structure. How to match the education level and skill level of the labor force with these changes has become a deep-seated structural issue in employment. In recent years, the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry is in a critical stage, and the construction of a modern industrial system urgently requires a suitable high skilled workforce. One of the reasons for the coexistence of a large number of "labor shortages" and widespread employment difficulties is that the relatively lagging reform of higher education has led to the inability of schools to adapt and meet the rapid changes in economic structure and labor market in terms of professional settings and curriculum systems. Faced with new demands, we need to accelerate the reform of higher education, pay more attention to the quality of education, and adjust and optimize the structure of disciplines and majors. Based on the actual needs of the labor force and talent market, relying on big data and advanced digital technology, predict the development of the industry and its demand for human capital, coordinate the content and structure of general education, professional education, and skill training, and cultivate a large number of skilled and innovative talents in a more targeted and precise manner.

Once again, establish and facilitate various employment channels to enhance the effectiveness of employment and entrepreneurship guidance. Some supportive policies in China, such as employment training and entrepreneurship guidance, are clearly disconnected from the market demand and structural mismatch in the digital economy era, which reduces the degree and effectiveness of policy implementation. The highlights and driving forces of China's endogenous economic growth are increasingly reliant on new technologies, products, formats, and models. The number of entrepreneurial groups and employment opportunities attracted by online platforms has surpassed that of offline enterprises in terms of incremental scale. This is a new trend in the digital economy era. We should adapt to the new requirements of the rapidly changing demand for employment and entrepreneurship, further improve the implementation mechanisms and methods of China's existing employment and entrepreneurship guidance and auxiliary policies, and adopt more flexible and diverse mechanisms on the supply side to facilitate various channels for young labor to enter the employment market. In 2022, the General Office of the State Council issued a notice on further improving the employment and entrepreneurship work of college graduates and other young people, and we will continue to make every effort to promote its implementation and effectiveness. This year, the Organization Department of the Central Committee, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission jointly issued a notice on the cancellation of employment registration certificates for graduates of ordinary higher education institutions. It is necessary to follow its requirements as soon as possible and promptly introduce implementation plans to further provide convenience for the employment and entrepreneurship of college graduates.

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