China will make stable employment a priority as structural reform puts pressure on the job market, said Vice Premier Ma Kai on March 1.

Structural reform will put pressure on employment and the government should focus on stable employment along with economic expansion, said Ma at a State Council meeting.

Local governments should support mass entrepreneurship and innovation as they will create jobs. In addition, migrant workers should be encouraged to start their own businesses back in their hometown.

Workers that are made redundant as industrial overcapacity is addressed should be relocated and offered training.

Policymakers have made cutting overcapacity a top priority in supply-side structural reform, which will help the world's second-largest economy achieve sustainable growth.

In the process of capacity cuts, around 1.3 million people in the coal and steel sectors will lose their jobs, according to Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Yin Weimin.

China has successfully met its employment targets for the past five years with 64 million jobs added and a low registered unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, a bright spot in China's economic and social development, Ma said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2016)