Promote high-quality and full employment

Today, the 14th collective study session of the 20th Central Political Bureau was held, focusing on promoting high-quality and full employment. The purpose was to combine the study and implementation of the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Party, summarize the achievements and experiences in employment work during the new era, analyze the current employment situation and the prominent issues faced, and research the ideas and measures to promote high-quality and full employment.

Employment is the most fundamental aspect of people's livelihood, directly affecting the vital interests of the masses, the healthy development of the economy and society, and the long-term stability of the nation. The Communist Party of China has always attached great importance to this issue. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Central Committee has consistently placed employment at the forefront of governance, strengthening employment-first policies, improving employment promotion mechanisms, and effectively responding to external pressures, internal difficulties, and especially the severe challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the annual increase in urban employment has reached millions, the urban surveyed unemployment rate has remained at a low level, and relatively full employment has been achieved in a developing country with over a billion people, providing significant support for the improvement of people's livelihoods and economic development.

In this process, we continuously deepen our understanding of the laws governing employment work in the new era, accumulating many experiences, mainly including: adhering to the comprehensive leadership of the Party in employment work, insisting on employment as the foundation of people's livelihood, implementing a priority strategy for employment, relying on development to promote employment, combining the expansion of employment capacity with the improvement of employment quality, focusing on key groups in employment, promoting employment through entrepreneurship, creating a fair employment environment, building harmonious labor relations, and so on. These experiences are extremely valuable and must be long-term upheld and continuously enriched and developed.

At the same time, it must be recognized that employment work still faces many prominent contradictions and issues. As China's development enters a period of strategic opportunities and risks, with increasing uncertainties and unpredictable factors, the pressure to stabilize growth and employment remains constant. The trends of fewer children, aging populations, regional population fluctuations, and economic digital transformation are gradually deepening their impact on employment, with structural employment contradictions becoming increasingly prominent. The growing demand of the people for high-quality life has made improving employment quality an urgent desire of workers.

The 20th National Congress of the Party scientifically grasped the new changes in the employment situation, responded to the new expectations of the people, and focused on steadily advancing high-quality development and the common prosperity of all people, making significant decisions to promote high-quality and full employment. At the macro level, high-quality and full employment mainly includes sufficient employment opportunities, fair employment environment, optimized employment structure, efficient matching of jobs and talents, and harmonious labor relations. At the micro level, high-quality and full employment is primarily manifested in workers not only having jobs but also enjoying stable employment, reasonable income, reliable security, and occupational safety. Of course, this is a high standard and a gradual process that must be pursued with utmost effort and within our means. It is essential to fully mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the people, guiding everyone to create a happy life through hard work and not to expect unearned gains or free rides.

Promoting high-quality and full employment is the new orientation and mission of employment work in the new era and new journey. We must adhere to the people-centered development philosophy, comprehensively implement the principles of workers' self-employment, market regulation of employment, government promotion of employment, and encouragement of entrepreneurship, with the promotion of high-quality development as the foundation, the implementation of a priority employment strategy as the guide, the strengthening of priority employment policies as the starting point, and the deepening of employment system and mechanism reforms as the driving force. We will continuously enhance the quality and reasonable growth of employment, constantly increase the sense of gain, happiness, and security among the broad masses of workers, and provide strong support for comprehensively advancing the construction of a powerful nation and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese-style modernization.

First, always prioritize employment. We must unwaveringly implement the new development philosophy, more consciously making high-quality and sufficient employment the priority goal of economic and social development, so that the process of high-quality development becomes one of upgrading and expanding employment, enhancing the employment-driving force of development. We should develop new productive forces tailored to local conditions, upgrade traditional industries, cultivate and expand emerging industries, plan and build future industries, and improve the modern industrial system, striving to create more high-quality employment opportunities. Support industries and enterprises that have strong employment absorption capabilities, stabilize and expand employment capacity. According to new trends in economic and social development and the new expectations of the people for high-quality life, continuously refine and optimize social division of labor, vigorously develop new forms and models of business, actively explore and cultivate new occupational sequences, and develop new growth points for employment. We must strengthen the evaluation of the impact of major policies, projects, and production layouts on employment, promote the coordination and alignment of fiscal, monetary, investment, consumption, industrial, regional, and employment policies, and build an employment-friendly development model.

Second, focus on addressing structural employment contradictions. The mismatch between the supply and demand of human resources is the primary contradiction currently facing China's employment sector. Resolving this contradiction hinges on accelerating the shaping of modern human resources characterized by high-quality, ample in quantity, optimized in structure, and reasonably distributed. To adapt to the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, it is essential to scientifically assess the trends in human resource development, coordinate efforts in education, training, and employment, dynamically adjust the structure and layout of higher education majors and resources, vigorously develop vocational education, improve lifelong vocational skills training systems, promote the integration of vocational and general education, industry-education integration, and science-education convergence, enhancing the foresight, relevance, and effectiveness of human resource development. Enhance the mechanism for matching supply and demand, striving to achieve a proper fit between jobs and individuals, utilizing people's strengths, and maximizing their potential, thereby improving the quality and stability of employment. Strengthen public education and advocacy to firmly establish a correct employment outlook across society, fostering a favorable public opinion environment and inclusive social atmosphere that values all professions, respects labor, and recognizes that every profession has its excellence, and that employment at the grassroots level can also be remarkable. This new perspective on career selection opens up new horizons for employment. Deeply analyze the reasons behind significant labor shortages in some industries, find effective solutions to fill these gaps, and address the issue of "jobs without workers" by first tackling "jobs without workers."

Third, improve employment support policies for key groups. It is essential to prioritize the employment of college graduates and other young people, develop more job opportunities that leverage their skills and knowledge, encourage young people to engage in entrepreneurship and employment in key areas, industries, urban and rural grassroots, and small and medium-sized enterprises, and expand market-oriented and social employment channels to ensure overall stability in youth employment levels. In conjunction with advancing new urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization, it is important to balance off-site employment with local employment, implement multiple measures to promote employment for migrant workers, and focus on guiding returning talents from urban areas and urban talents to rural areas for entrepreneurship. Maintain stable employment scale and income for those who have lifted themselves out of poverty, preventing large-scale return to poverty due to unemployment. Provide support for employment difficulties faced by older workers, the disabled, and those who have been unemployed for extended periods, implement employment assistance measures, and coordinate the use of public welfare positions to ensure that zero-employment families are dynamically cleared. Ensure employment for groups such as veterans and women.

Fourth, deepen the reform of employment system and mechanisms. We should give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of human resources, better leverage the role of the government, and focus on addressing the bottlenecks that hinder the improvement of employment quality, expansion of employment capacity, and optimization of employment structure. We will improve the public employment service system, build a comprehensive public employment service system that covers all citizens, runs throughout the entire process, radiates across all regions, and offers convenient and efficient services, enhancing the accessibility, equalization, and professionalism of public employment services. We will improve the security system that promotes entrepreneurship and drives employment, optimize entrepreneurial services, and enhance the quality of entrepreneurship. We will establish a unified and standardized human resources market system, create a fair employment environment, resolutely remove institutional and mechanism barriers affecting the flow of labor and talent, and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to achieve personal development through hard work.

Fifth, strengthen the protection of workers' rights and interests. We should improve labor laws and regulations, standardize labor standards for new employment forms, enhance the social security system, and safeguard workers' legitimate rights and interests in areas such as labor remuneration, rest and vacation, labor safety, skill training, social insurance, and welfare. Enhance the protection of rights and interests for flexible employment and new employment forms, expand pilot programs for occupational injury insurance, and promptly summarize experiences to form institutional frameworks. Strengthen market supervision and labor protection supervision enforcement to effectively address issues such as employment discrimination, wage and insurance arrears, and illegal layoffs.

Employment is not only a family matter but also a national concern. Party committees and governments at all levels should prioritize employment as the foremost task in people's livelihood, strengthen organizational leadership, improve institutional mechanisms, and enhance collaborative efforts. We must accelerate the construction of China's employment theory system, actively tell the stories of China's employment, and effectively enhance our international discourse power and influence in the field of employment.