(Bloomberg) -- China’s cabinet has called for strengthening the country’s job market by resolving structural issues and promoting wage growth in an effort to boost employment as an economic slowdown deepens.
The State Council will incorporate the priority goal of full employment into its national economic and social development plan to drive coordinated efforts with other key fiscal, monetary and industrial policies, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday, citing directions from the cabinet.
The 24-point guidelines from the State Council comes during a challenging time for the nation’s labor market, with the youth unemployment rate soaring to the highest level this year in August. China unveiled a raft of stimulus measures this week to boost its lackluster economy, but concerns persist.
For college graduates who have difficulty finding a job two years after leaving school, the cabinet suggested providing certain social security benefits, without elaborating. A structural mismatch has been one of the main reasons for the country’s growing youth unemployment, as graduates primarily seek white-collar jobs while factories struggle to hire.
The State Council also called for strengthening the guidance for enterprises to promote reasonable wage growth for workers, and for companies to build training bases for vocational skills. The cabinet added that it will improve the mechanism for preventing and resolving the risk of “large-scale unemployment,” without elaborating on the details.
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