Recruiting in China

A total of 57 million jobs will have been created in China's urban areas over the 2006-2010 period, the Minister of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) Yin Weimin said Thursday.

Annual employment for the period will be 11.4 million, or 2.1 million more than China's 10th Five-Year Program (2001-2005) period, said Yin while addressing a national human resources and social security work conference.

Yin said the unemployment rate had remained under 4.3 percent throughout the period, while nearly 45 million underemployed rural workers had taken up new jobs in the non-agricultural sectors, 5 million more than the 2001-2005 period.

The Employment Promotion Law of 2007 as well as measures introduced after several natural disasters and the global financial crisis had boosted employment, Yin said.

Also, a system providing vocational training and employment services was taking shape, he said.

About 86 million people received special vocational training and 330 million people used government employment services during the period, he added.

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang said at the national conference on human resources and social security that China needed to resolutely stick to the task of creating jobs and keep improving the social security system during the coming 12th Five-Year-Plan period (2011-2015).

In the next five years, the government should implement more effective employment measures and create jobs through diversified channels, Zhang said .

Zhang also said the government should increase investment in the social security network and expand the network's coverage so to improve the country's social security system for both rural and urban residents.