Jobs, jobs, jobs: China focuses on quality of life as trade war and lower growth take toll
- Premier Li Keqiang says the government will create 11 million new positions in urban areas and help disadvantaged groups join the workforce
- Plans are also afoot to cut mobile internet rates and expand childcare
The Chinese government has unveiled a range of commitments to improve the quality of life for the general public as it tries to head off potential social unrest spawned by slowing economic growth at home and geopolitical tensions abroad.
In his annual work report to the National People’s Congress on Tuesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged to improve job security, reform the medical system, cut mobile internet rates and expand childcare.
The work report is a top-level policy blueprint that outlines the government’s major strategic achievements and targets for the next year and is presented during the annual “two sessions” gathering of the country’s peak legislative and consultative bodies.
The focus this year on job security, particularly in urban areas, comes as Beijing tries to boost flagging domestic growth, increase personal income and clamp down on rising unemployment rates.
Some of the China’s hi-tech manufacturing heartlands such as Guangdong and Fujian province have been battered over the last year by the US-China trade war, and droves of migrant workers have been laid off from their short-term contracts in other areas such as Chongqing as the economy has slowed.
Li pledged to create 11 million new urban jobs and to keep the urban unemployment rate under 4.5 per cent in 2019.
China’s official urban unemployment rate stood at 3.8 per cent at the end of last year, but a separate survey from the National Bureau of Statistics put it at 4.7 per cent.
“Employment is the cornerstone of well-being, and the wellspring of wealth ... Maintaining stable growth, first and foremost, is to ensure employment,” Li said.
The premier also said there would be help for disadvantaged groups looking for jobs, including recent university graduates, rural migrant workers and military veterans. In addition, there would be better vocational training and a ban on “gender and identity discrimination in employment”.
Also high on the agenda is the government’s ambitious target to eliminate poverty to create a “moderately prosperous society” by 2020.
This year’s work report said 13.86 million rural people had been lifted out of poverty as part of the drive, and the goal was to increase that total by 10 million in 2019. China’s poverty line is measured by average earnings of US$1.90 per day.
Liu Xinle, a delegate from the Jiusan Society, a non-communist party that counts many scientists among its members, said there had been good progress in the battle against poverty but there was a risk that those gains could be lost.
“I’m worried about what will happen after the policy is abolished once the target is reached,” Liu said.
“These people are the poorest in society and could fall back into poverty after the policy is cancelled. We can’t ease up.”
The reimbursement rate for serious disease insurance will rise from 50 to 60 per cent, and early screening for cancer is also planned.
But for one Beijing taxi driver earning about 5,000 yuan (US$745) a month – or roughly half the average monthly income in the capital – there was one issue at the top of his agenda.
“If I could raise one issue to Chinese leaders at the two sessions, it would be to find a way to raise taxi drivers’ wages,” he said.
“We have been struggling with competition from online ride hailing apps which have cut into our business and pay.”
Additional reporting by Keegan Elmer and Guo Rui
