China works to ensure employment against COVID-19 impact

Migrant workers from Anhui Province board a special train to Kunshan of east China's Jiangsu Province to resume work in Suzhou City, east China's Anhui Province, Feb. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Bo)

The State Council, China's cabinet, has released a guideline to expedite the recovery of employment and keep it stable to counter the impact from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

The document outlined measures in five aspects, including prioritizing employment, helping migrant workers return to work, expanding job opportunities for college graduates, ensuring social security to those most in need and improving professional training and employment services.

More efforts like fast-tracking targeted tax and fee reduction should be made to safeguard jobs, while investment in industries that can create more jobs should be prioritized, said the guideline.

The guideline called for a better environment for entrepreneurship featuring wider coverage of guaranteed loans for startups and policy support for venture investments.

To help migrant workers return to work, the country will continue with "point-to-point" non-stop transportation, as well as establish a series of urban infrastructure and public service facilities to help migrant workers find work in their vicinity.

In terms of employment for college graduates, the guideline said that the scale of recruitment for state-owned enterprises, public institutions and the military will be expanded along with graduate school enrollment and professional internship posts.

The guideline also said unemployment insurance will be available upon application online by the end of April, and timely support should be given to people whose jobs were affected by the epidemic, especially in hardest-hit areas like Hubei Province.

The country will conduct professional training on a larger scale with focus on key groups of labor like migrant workers, while employment services will be improved, the guideline said.