The plan also pledges to accelerate economic development of townships and counties, providing surplus rural laborers with more job opportunities nearby their hometowns. The key lies in equal employment between urban and rural laborers and the improvement of an employment mechanism for migrant workers.

Difficulties

Numerous job seekers have caused some newspapers and media outlets to exaggerate China's job market crisis.

"China's employment situation is not as bad as imagined," said Li Chang'an, associate professor of School of Public Administration of University of International Business and Economics.

"China's urban registered unemployment rate has been kept below 5 percent and the total number of registered unemployed people is around 10 million. If calculated by international standards, China's unemployment rate may be around 7-8 percent, similar to the current situation in the United States," said Li

According to him, China's unemployment issue has several distinctive characteristics, among which the most serious one is the structural unemployment. Due to the hukou policy, unemployment in urban and rural areas is given vastly different attention. Urban residents often benefit from favorable local policies, but most floating rural populations are not included in unemployment registration.

The second is the unemployment among youths. Today, nearly 2 million college graduates, 30 percent of the total, will have difficulty in finding jobs after graduating.

Also, low employment quality, unstable positions, frequent job-hopping, low wages and poor working environment make China's labor market very fragile.

"These are the main difficulties for China to solve its unemployment problem," said Li.

The service industry is widely recognized as the most effective sector to absorb employees. But since the reform and opening up in 1978, the development speed of the service sector falls behind manufacturing in most years. The lagging of the service industry is a major obstacle for employment promotion.

More importantly, although small and medium-sized private enterprises create over 75 percent jobs, their development problems are a big restraint for creating jobs. Poor management and abrupt closures of private enterprises are the main cause for large-scale unemployment, or even conflicts between both sides.

The employment situation will be more complicated as the number of job seekers increases. Each year, 25 million urban residents need jobs and a considerable number of rural surplus laborers need to be transferred from rural areas, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Along with technology improvement and upgrades in industries, the shortage of skilled laborers will be more serious, said the ministry in a statement.

Solutions

"China is a country with surplus of laborers, making promoting employment a key target for the Central Government," said Li. "When formulating macroeconomic plans, the government should choose a development pattern that's beneficial for promoting employment and form a long-term mechanism with interaction of economic development, adjustment of the industrial structure and employment promotion."

China is adjusting its industrial structure via upgrading technology, which will make it more difficult for unskilled migrant workers to find jobs.

"Right now, labor-intensive industry has strategic significance," said Li. The government should give more support to the service industry and avoid favoring on heavy and chemical industries, although they are an inevitable link for industrialization and modernization.

Currently, heavy and chemical industries have absorbed over 80 percent of the total investment, but have only provided 25 percent of employment.

Increasing investments in the service industry can play a big role in employment promotion, Li said.

Targets in the Employment Promotion Plan (2011-15)

- 45 million jobs will be created and 40 million rural laborers will be transferred from rural areas.

- The registered urban unemployment rate will be kept within 5 percent by the end of 2015.

- The number of skilled laborers will reach 125 million by the end of 2015, of whom 34 million will be high-caliber skilled laborers, accounting for 27 percent of skilled laborers. The number of talent with technical expertise will reach 68 million.

- More than 90 percent of laborers will sign contracts with employers and collective bargaining will be extended to cover 80 percent of corporate work units.

- The minimum wage will be increased by at least 13 percent annually and the minimum wage in most regions should reach at least 40 percent of local urban employees' average wage.

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