More jobs to help faster economic growth

Authorities in China are striving to improve employment conditions in the second half of this year, as part of their efforts to achieve stable and high-quality economic growth. 

Around 7.5 million people across China's urban areas have found jobs in the first half of this year.

The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee regards employment as a stabilizing influence in China's ongoing economic restructuring, taking the approach that high-quality employment drives high-quality economic growth. 

A job fair in Beijing on April 21, 2018. [File Photo: IC]

Ha Zengyou, an inspector from China's Reform and Development Commission, said that on top of creating more high-quality jobs, China should also place greater importance on new drivers of employment. 

"We should take a more innovative approach towards supervision, and expand and strengthen new industries and business models such as the platform economy and shared economy, in order for these new drivers to help with employment," Ha says.

China is expected to further trim labor costs to keep unemployment below 5.5 percent. 

Zhang Yi, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says that more job opportunities have been created from the increasing flexibility of China's economy. 

"We should target small and medium-sized enterprises, so that the high tech firms among them have healthy growth. If they can keep growing in that way for a couple of years, it's possible for there to be good employment prospects," Zhang says.

China is set to introduce new regulations to govern the country's labor market, starting on October 1.