1st Ld-Writethru: China unveils measures to shore up job market

China's State Council, the country's cabinet, rolled out four measures on Friday encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation and creation of more jobs.

The four measures were included in the guidelines on employment and entrepreneurship work under the new situation, which underscored pressure in the job market, and urged proactive employment policies to be implemented.

The government should refine policies and continue encouraging widespread entrepreneurship and startups in order to create a new engine of economic growth, according to the guidelines.

China is faced with the heavy task of ensuring employment in 2015 against the backdrop of an economic slowdown.

The Chinese government has pledged to create more than 10 million urban jobs and ensure that the registered urban unemployment rate does not rise above 4.5 percent in 2015, according to a government work report unveiled in March.

The four measures include implementing an employment-first policy requiring governments at all levels to prioritize job creation, boosting employment by encouraging entrepreneurship and startups, supporting university and college graduates in finding jobs or starting businesses, and providing better government and training services.

The number of new jobs in urban areas and the surveyed urban unemployment rate will be added to the list of important macro-economic indicators, said the guidelines.

It also demanded all qualified enterprises nationwide be included in a campaign launched by the nation's unemployment insurance to encourage employers to maintain their workforce.

China created 3.2 million new jobs in urban areas in the first quarter this year, and an official survey showed that its urban surveyed unemployment rate was "stable" at around 5.1 percent, unchanged from the rate in 2014.

In order to encourage entrepreneurship and startups, governments at all levels were called on to speed up related reforms and refine policies to ensure fair treatment, favorable financial and tax conditions, and basic social safety benefits for startups.

The government supports entrepreneurship guaranteed loans, and a previous government-backed program for small guaranteed loans will be merged into entrepreneurship guaranteed loans, it said.

The maximum sum will be 100,000 yuan (16,300 U.S. dollars) for each entrepreneurship guaranteed loan, and government fiscal revenues will help cover some interest, it said. Endi