Efforts needed to keep employment growing amid challenges from technology, discrimination
Efforts needed to keep employment growing
Solid progress has been made in China in recent years to increase and stabilize employment, but pressure persists with an imbalanced regional employment situation, discrimination and challenges from new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), a report showed.
The report, released during the 12th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on Friday, showed that pressure on the country's labor market is relatively high, as is the overall figure for the working-age population.
The working-age population, from 16-59 years old, numbers nearly 900 million, although there has been a consistent decline since 2012. The figure is expected to decrease to around 800 million by 2035, the report showed, according to a report by news site 21jingji.com.
The large workforce, combined with a high number of registered unemployed people in urban areas, indicate that severe tasks lie ahead.
There are obvious regional disparities. In Northeast China, the brain drain is very serious due to resource depletion, efforts to cut industrial capacity and restructuring of state-owned enterprises. In East China, the demand for labor is huge and the unemployment rate is relatively low.
Less-developed regions still face difficulties in attracting and retaining labor.
Moreover, discrimination remains a problem, with some employers refusing to hire unmarried and disabled people. Some employers publicly advertise positions for men only, or structure employment requirements in ways that prevent women and disabled people from competing for certain positions.
The application of technologies such as robots, drones, and AI has also begun to replace human labor in some occupations, especially simple repetitive labor, which has reduced employment in the short term. So far, factory workers and bank tellers have been most affected, the report said.
Despite the complicated situation, China still achieved major progress - a total of 8.67 million new urban jobs were created during the first seven months of the year, according to a report from the Xinhua News Agency.
The central and local authorities are fully aware of the issues affecting the labor market.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on August 20 stressed the importance of stabilizing employment, noting that employment is pivotal to people's wellbeing, and he said that governments should realize the arduous efforts needed in job creation and prioritize stable employment.
In May, the State Council, China's Cabinet, announced it will establish a top-level employment leadership group to better implement government employment policies, a move to stabilize employment and the labor market amid uncertainties such as the ongoing China-US trade war.
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