Job target reached ahead of schedule

China has created jobs for 11.91 million people in urban areas for the first 10 months of 2017, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced on Dec 7. Also during the same period, 4.71 million of the urban population who were previously jobless managed to get jobs, and 1.47 million people who had difficulty in finding employment are employed.

This means this year’s target of employment set in the Government Work Report in March of creating new jobs for 11 million urban residents in 2017 was reached ahead of time.

Guideline will help graduates get work

The Ministry of Education called for efforts to encourage graduates to find jobs or start businesses in high technology, advanced manufacturing, the service sector, and other emerging industries, as the ministry released a notice to help boost employment for university students graduating in 2018.

The notice said that steps should be taken to create more channels for college graduates to find jobs and start businesses. Efforts need to be made to encourage students to work in grassroots areas, emerging industries as well as small and micro-sized companies. The government will also accelerate steps in developing makerspaces to better facilitate services and a policy environment for entrepreneurs and young people starting businesses on their own.

The ministry said on Dec 6 that a total of 8.2 million college students were expected to graduate in 2018.

Government sharing of information enhanced

China will further integrate government information systems and enable more information disclosure on the allocation of public resources. This was decided at the State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Dec 6.

The government will further consolidate and integrate national data sharing and exchange platforms to enable connectivity across networks, data and administrative services, according to the statement released after the meeting. This move is part of government efforts to streamline administration, enhance compliance oversight and provide better services, with the aim of delivering greater benefits to the public with easier and faster access to administrative services.

Content and modality of data sharing across State Council departments will be clearly defined to ensure public access to information that can be released. Meanwhile, the 40 vertical information systems run by State Council bodies will be made open to governments at various levels by the end of this year, which will enable the sharing of service information on some 500 data items, including the identity verification of natural persons and enterprises, tax payment certificate, real estate registration, and diploma certification.

National economic census to be launched

China will soon launch the fourth national economic census in 2018, the State Council announced on Dec 8.

The census will cover all businesses involved in the secondary and tertiary industries, in fields such as mining, manufacturing, electricity, building, wholesale and retail, transportation, financing, and real estate.

Information pertaining to the basic situation, organization structure, staff expenses, production capacity, financial status, and service activities of the business entities will be collected during the yearlong census.