In two recent State Council executive meetings, keeping employment stable was noted as a priority amid efforts to promote economic and social development while ensuring prevention and control of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The travel restrictions and business disruptions have exerted a downward pressure on the economy. The latest data on industrial output, retail sales and investment shows across-the-board contraction in the first two months this year.

A total of 1.08 million new urban jobs were created in the first two months. The surveyed urban unemployment rate in February stood at 6.2 percent, up 1 percentage point from January, the National Bureau of Statistics said on March 16.

To cushion the impact and promote the overall stability of employment, China has outlined measures to support resumption of work, facilitate recruitment of key groups and revive demand for labor by creating new forms of industrial activity and new occupations.

It was stressed at the State Council executive meeting on March 17 that unreasonable restrictions that hinder the resumption of work should be lifted to enable more people to return to work and resume their income at the earliest, as the situation continues to ease.

China has restored normal traffic in most areas. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are especially vulnerable but contribute more than 80 percent of the job opportunities in China, have been provided with extensive policy support to ease their cash strain, such as temporary exemption of social insurance payments, deferral of the collection of housing provident funds and low-interest loans.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also encourages leading enterprises to give a hand to SMEs to speed up work resumption across industries.

"It is vital to remove barriers holding back work and production resumption, and make local governments more responsible for avoiding over-restriction," Chang Tiewei, Deputy Director of the Employment Department of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said.

Over 90 percent of major industrial enterprises in China's provincial-level regions, except for some areas including Hubei Province, have resumed work and production thanks to targeted restoration measures, the NDRC said on March 17.

The meeting on March 17 also called for adopting more market-oriented approaches to facilitate employment and entrepreneurship for key groups such as college graduates and migrant workers.

As the number of college graduates is expected to hit a record 8.74 million this year, the Ministry of Education and other departments have announced measures to ease the pressure, including launch of online campus recruitment services and increase in enrollment for master's degree courses.

According to Zhaopin.com, China's leading human resource service provider, more than 50,000 enterprises participated in online campus recruitment through the platform as of March 15, offering 200,000 jobs. Over 450,000 students submitted their resumes.

Buses, high-speed trains and planes have been arranged to help rural migrant workers return to work and alleviate labor shortages in some areas.

About 100 million migrant workers have gone back to work, accounting for 80 percent of those who had returned to their hometowns before the Spring Festival, Li Zhong, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, said on March 19.

The ministry is planning to launch a 100-day free online vocational training camp to the end of June for job seekers. The camp will select at least 50 online platforms nationwide covering more than 100 occupations to provide training to over 5 million people.

Large-scale and effective skills training will enormously enhance the skills of the rural migrant workers, helping them adapt to the requirements of economic transformation and industrial upgrading, Yang Zhiming, Chairman of the Chinese Association of Labor Science, said.

The meeting on March 17 also called for intensifying support for Internet Plus and the platform economy to cultivate new fields in the digital economy and create new jobs and professions. Obstacles must be eliminated to facilitate diverse forms of business startups and flexible employment.

Many Internet firms are adding new staff to cope with a surge in business. Yuanfudao, a Beijing-based online tutoring platform, has launched its new spring recruitment plan with over 10,000 job posts ranging from teachers to programmers.

The Beijing Business Incubation Association has launched an initiative with 86 incubators in the city, which can accommodate about 6,000 small and micro enterprises. The association said these incubators will provide professional services for settled businesses in early investment and entrepreneurship mentoring and also open up incubation service resources and channels.

"Entrepreneurship can create job opportunities in two ways. It is the right time to expand employment by encouraging startups," Lai Desheng, a professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said.

China officially recognized 16 new professions in March, mostly in emerging industries and service sectors such as artificial intelligence trainers and virtual reality technicians. The move is expected to boost the development of related industries, increase employment and strengthen vocational education and training.

This is an edited version of an article published by Xinhua News Agency

Copyedited by Madhusudan Chaubey

Comments to dengyaqing@bjreview.com