Off the wire
China sees more inclusive finance loans to small businesses in 2019  • Discover China: Digital technologies enable inclusive finance in China  • Inclusive finance service benefits small enterprises  • China inclusive finance loans increase in 2018  • China allocates 10 bln yuan to support inclusive finance  • China's inclusive finance develops steadily  • Xinhua China news advisory -- June 3  • Garden festival kicks off in Ireland, attracts residents, visitors  • Venezuela sends aid to Cuba after tropical storm Alberto  • Venezuela prepares list of political opponents to be freed from jail  
You are here:   News/

China takes measures to ensure employment, work resumption

Xinhua,April 22, 2020 Adjust font size:

To offset COVID-19's impact on the job market, China has taken measures to ensure employment and promote work resumption, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS).

In the first quarter of 2020, the ministry has helped over 10,000 central and local key enterprises recruit nearly 500,000 people to ensure the orderly production of medical supplies and daily necessities, said Lu Aihong, spokesperson of the MHRSS at a press conference Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the country offered "point-to-point" non-stop transportation for nearly 5.9 million migrant workers to help them return to work, Lu said.

An unemployment insurance program has enabled more than 3 million enterprises to enjoy a total refunding of 38.8 billion yuan (5.48 billion U.S. dollars), benefiting nearly 81 million employees around the country, according to Lu.

A special online job fair was also organized to revive job markets hit by the epidemic, while social insurance premiums were cut or deferred to ease the financial pressure on enterprises, said the spokesperson.

From January to March, a total of 2.29 million new urban jobs were created, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

The surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 5.9 percent in March, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous month.