Shanghai plans to reduce its urban registered unemployment rate
to under 4.5 percent this year, and create 500,000 new job
opportunities for its nearly 20 million population, officials from
the Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau, said.
Shanghai's unemployment rate stood at 4.4 percent at the end of
last year, according to the bureau.
Jiang Zhuoqing, director of the bureau, said at a working
conference yesterday, the city had created 663,000 new jobs in the
past year, 137,000 of which were "non-farm" jobs offered to the
rural labor force.
He said a major challenge the city faces is finding enough jobs
for the expanding labor force.
"Groups have to take effective measures to help young college
and technical school graduates, and the surplus labor force
generated by industry adjustment and land requisition.
"We also encourage people to become employed in flexible ways
and also create their own businesses," he said.
The municipal government plans to provide 30,000 young people
with internship programs this year in the city's leading sectors,
including the high-tech, and service industries.
Shen Xiaoming, director of the Shanghai Education Commission,
said yesterday that a 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million) fund,
jointly sponsored by the commission and the city's Science and
Technology Commission, will be annually offered, starting this
year, to graduates who start their own businesses.
According to Jiang, the basic social security coverage will keep
expanding in Shanghai, toward a goal of 98 percent, as referred to
in the city's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).
"We will further strengthen the implementation of basic social
security systems in both the town and counties. We also plan to
optimize some policies concerning security, pension and medial
insurance to benefit more low-income residents," Jiang said.
In the past year, the local government has increased the amount
of retirement pension and upgraded minimum wages.
Shanghai established an insurance system in 2002 for the migrant
population who are employed in the city. The system consists of
compensation, medical insurance, and pension. Jiang said such a
system is expected to cover more than 3 million migrant workers
this year.
(China Daily March 9, 2007)