On September 25th, the ‘Opinions on Implementing Employment Priority Strategy and Promoting High-Quality and Full Employment’ issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, was released to continuously promote the effective improvement of employment quality and the reasonable growth of employment quantity.
The ‘Opinions’ propose 24 measures from aspects such as promoting coordinated development of economic and social development with employment promotion, focusing on resolving structural employment contradictions, improving the employment support system for key groups, establishing a precise and efficient public employment service system, enhancing the protection level of workers’ employment rights and interests, and gathering work efforts to promote high-quality and full employment. These measures include enhancing the employment synergy of the modern industrial system, expanding the enrollment scale of science, engineering, agriculture, and medical majors, and promoting reasonable growth of labor remuneration.
Utilize employment status as a crucial basis for educational resource allocation, quality assessment, and enrollment planning, implementing a red and yellow card warning system for majors with low employment quality. Accelerate the development of modern vocational education and establish a comprehensive lifelong vocational skills training system. Vigorously conduct vocational skill training and fully implement the new apprenticeship training model in enterprises. Guide enterprises to extract and use employee education funds in accordance with regulations, ensuring that over 60% of the funds are used for the education and training of frontline employees, and allow the funds to be used for establishing vocational schools (including technical schools). Broaden the development channels for skilled personnel. Establish and improve the national qualification framework, promote the mutual recognition of professional qualifications and skill levels with corresponding titles and academic qualifications, and actively implement the system of ‘academic diplomas + several vocational skill certificates’. Actively explore and cultivate new professional sequences and timely release new professions. Dynamically publish information on skill-based talent remuneration, guiding enterprises to gradually improve the salary and benefits for skilled personnel. Construct functional and convenient casual labor stations to improve the employment support system for key groups. The ‘Opinions’ propose to expand channels for employment and career development for college graduates and other young people. Promote market-oriented employment and improve policies on salary treatment, title evaluation and appointment, training, and further education. Support returning overseas students to equally enjoy employment and entrepreneurship policies and services. At the same time, provide employment service guarantees for veterans and improve the education and training system for veterans that runs concurrently with academic education, vocational skills training, entrepreneurship training, and personalized training. Broaden the employment and income space for rural labor. Introduce new professions that meet the needs of comprehensive rural revitalization, focus on guiding talents from outside to return to their hometowns and urban talents to go to the countryside to start businesses, implement work-relief programs, and accelerate the formation of a two-way flow and integrated urban-rural employment pattern. Improve the employment assistance system for disadvantaged individuals. Strengthen assistance for employment-challenged groups such as the elderly, disabled, and those unemployed for a long time, creating diverse and personalized job positions suitable for the elderly. Optimize the support system for self-employment and flexible employment. Improve the support system for entrepreneurship training, services, incubation, and activities, optimize the policy environment for entrepreneurship to promote employment, and enhance the quality of entrepreneurship. Support the healthy development of flexible employment and build regional and industry-specific casual labor markets, as well as functional and convenient casual labor stations. Support and regulate the development of new employment forms, expand the pilot of occupational injury protection for workers in new employment forms, ensure their right to know and participate in platform labor rules, and facilitate channels for workers to protect their rights. For those with employment difficulties and college graduates within two years of graduation who engage in flexible employment, provide certain social insurance subsidies as stipulated. Promote reasonable growth of labor remuneration and enhance the protection level of workers’ employment rights and interests, ensuring equal employment rights.
Resolutely break the institutional and mechanism barriers that affect the flow of labor and talents. Simultaneously promote reforms in services such as household registration, employment, and archives. Eliminate unreasonable restrictions and employment discrimination that affect equal employment, such as those related to region, identity, gender, and age, and smooth the channels of social mobility.
Guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of women in employment and entrepreneurship, career development, skills training, occupational health and safety, etc. Improve the support systems for fertility security, inclusive childcare, and employment support to build a fertility-friendly employment environment. It is noteworthy that the ‘Opinions’ clearly state to promote the reasonable growth of labor remuneration. Improve the primary distribution mechanism in which factors such as labor, knowledge, and technology participate in distribution according to their contributions, and increase the proportion of labor remuneration in the primary distribution. Build harmonious labor relations. Improve the negotiation and coordination mechanism of labor relations, and urge enterprises to legally guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of workers, such as obtaining labor remuneration, rest and leave, and labor safety and health protection. Expand the coverage of social security. Promote employers and employees to participate in social insurance according to law. Improve the social security systems for flexible workers, migrant workers, and workers in new forms of employment, and comprehensively cancel the household registration restrictions for participating in insurance at the place of employment. In addition, in terms of integrating the joint efforts to promote high-quality and full employment, the ‘Opinions’ also emphasize the need to actively respond to the impact of the rapid development of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence on employment.
