Zhang Libin

** Core views:** To implement the strategy of expanding domestic demand and build a complete domestic demand system, we must adhere to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, and establishing first and then breaking down. An important link is to stabilize employment.

■ Zhang Libin

Employment stability is an important prerequisite for expanding domestic demand. The Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2023 emphasized "more emphasis on employment priority", and this year's "Government Work Report" proposed "multiple measures to stabilize employment and promote income increase." It can be seen that the central government has comprehensively considered stabilizing employment to a strategic level, and the importance of stabilizing employment has been further enhanced.

01-Stabilizing employment is the basis for expanding domestic demand-

At the end of 2022, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Outline of the Strategic Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand (2022-2035)", proposing the goals and key tasks of "accelerating the cultivation of a complete domestic demand system", requiring the entire chain of production, distribution, circulation, consumption and investment reproduction to expand the domestic demand system, and cultivate a complete domestic demand system composed of improving supply quality, optimizing distribution pattern, improving circulation system, comprehensively promoting consumption, and expanding investment space.

Throughout the entire chain of the entire domestic demand system, employment issues are implemented throughout. First of all, labor is the most important factor of production. Only by effective combination of sufficient and high-quality labor and production materials can we provide high-quality products and services. The distribution link is the key to achieving high-quality employment. Workers must receive sufficient labor remuneration in order to complete the expanded reproduction of labor with high quality and become the main consumer of daily necessities; owners of production factors such as capital, management, and technology must obtain reasonable factor income can they become the main body of factor input for expanded reproduction and realize investment reproduction. It can be seen that developing a high-quality labor force with sufficient quantity and compatible with high-quality development, promoting the matching of supply and demand of labor factors, achieving employment, ensuring that workers receive sufficient labor remuneration, and owners of production factors receive reasonable factor returns are the key to expanding effective demand and forming the basis and key to expanding the scale effect of domestic demand.

At present, China's development is facing increasing complexity, severity and uncertainty, and there are many problems in economic operations, such as insufficient effective demand. In the employment field, there is the coexistence of total employment pressure and structural contradictions.

To implement the strategy of expanding domestic demand and build a complete domestic demand system, we must adhere to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, and establishing first and then breaking down. An important part of this is to stabilize employment. Stabilizing the basic market of employment opportunities for nearly 770 million labor force and 730 million employed people will stabilize the basic livelihood of nearly 500 million families and more than 1.4 billion people, stabilize the vitality of more than 170 million market entities, and stabilize domestic demand. The foundation for growth is conducive to forming a scale effect to expand domestic demand.

02-Stabilize employment from a strategic perspective-form a scale effect to expand domestic demand-

Comprehensively considering the domestic and foreign situation and various factors, and considering the need to promote employment and increase income, prevent and resolve risks, this year's "Government Work Report" determined that the GDP will grow by about 5%, more than 12 million new urban jobs will be created, and urban surveyed unemployment will be the main development expected target of around 5.5%. All regions and departments must, in accordance with the requirements of the "Government Work Report", adopt more policies that are conducive to stabilizing expectations, stabilizing growth, and stabilizing employment, and implement comprehensive policies to maintain the stability of total employment, improve the quality of employment, and lay the foundation for forming a scale effect that expands domestic demand.

First, stabilize employment by stabilizing growth.

Give full play to the basic role of consumption. In the future, China will continue to improve the quality of traditional consumption such as food, clothing, housing, and transportation, actively develop service consumption such as cultural tourism, elderly care and childcare, medical health, education, sports, housekeeping, and community public services, and accelerate the cultivation of new consumption models and new business formats, vigorously advocate green and low-carbon consumption, and further unleash consumption potential. People always have to consume. By meeting the diverse consumption needs of the broad masses of the people, a large number of employment opportunities can be stabilized; by continuously creating and providing new consumer goods and services, new employment opportunities can also be created.

Play the key role of investment. China is in the stage of rapid development of new industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, with huge investment demand potential. In the future, China will increase investment support in the manufacturing industry, accelerate the construction of transportation, water conservancy, energy and other infrastructure and ecological and environmental protection facilities, improve the logistics infrastructure network, improve social and livelihood infrastructure such as medical care, education, and elderly care, and systematically deploy new infrastructures. Facilities, proactive layout of innovative infrastructure, etc. These investment projects themselves will drive the development of upstream and downstream industrial chains, stabilize and expand employment in the entire industrial chain, and enhance the people's sense of happiness, security, and gain.

Explore new employment growth points in promoting new urbanization and coordinated development of urban and rural areas. New urbanization and coordinated development of urban and rural areas are important driving forces for China's economic development. Promoting a new type of urbanization with people at the core and promoting equal access to basic public services for the agricultural migrant population will release huge consumption potential and stabilize and expand rural labor transfer employment. Improving the urban system of megacities, large and medium-sized cities, small and medium-sized cities, and county towns, giving full play to the radiating and driving capabilities of central cities, and promoting the development of county economies centered on counties will help promote the flow of labor to areas with high labor productivity, and will also help increase employment and income. Implementing rural construction actions, improving the rural market system, enriching the rural economic form, improving the system and mechanism for integrated urban and rural development, and actively promoting rural modernization will help promote employment and income increase for the rural population.

Second, stabilize employment by stabilizing market entities.

Promote the development of the private economy and stabilize employment. We must unswervingly encourage, support, and guide the development of the non-public economy, provide stable policy expectations, continuously improve the business environment, effectively solve various difficulties faced by the development of private enterprises, and implement and improve job stabilization returns, special loans, and social security subsidies and other policies to enhance enterprises 'ability to stabilize jobs. Focus on monitoring enterprises in industries with large employment capacity, one enterprise, one policy, and increase support to ensure enterprise employment and employment stability.

Support entrepreneurship to drive employment. It is necessary to further optimize the entrepreneurial environment, comprehensively upgrade entrepreneurial services, and provide entrepreneurs with a package of support such as project recommendations, venue support, and financial services. Continue to increase various entrepreneurship policy support such as guaranteed loans and one-time entrepreneurship subsidies, encourage and guide professional and technical personnel, returnees and other groups to join businesses, and better release the "multiplier effect" of entrepreneurship driving employment.

Develop a new economy to drive new jobs. We must continue to encourage the innovative development of new technologies, new industries, new business formats, and new models, and drive the development of new occupations and new employment forms. Standardize the development of new employment forms and better protect the rights and interests of employees.

Third, stabilize employment by improving the quality of workers.

Strengthen vocational skills training. Increase efforts to promote the "Skills China" action, carry out large-scale special training for enterprise employees and key groups, improve and implement policies such as vocational skills improvement subsidies and work-instead-training as needed, and help enterprises stabilize jobs and stabilize employment for key groups. Establish and improve a lifelong vocational skills training system as soon as possible, strengthen new vocational skills training, so that workers can easily obtain vocational skills training according to market needs, and enhance their ability to respond to career changes throughout their lives.

Improve the adaptability of educational talent training to economic development. Improve the vocational education system, promote the high-quality and characteristic development of vocational education, and cultivate an army of knowledge-based, skilled, and innovative workers that are compatible with the modern industrial system. According to the needs of industrial development, optimize the disciplinary and professional structure of higher education and talent training methods, strengthen the integration of industry and education, and school-enterprise cooperation, increase the training of urgently needed talents, improve students 'digital abilities and employability, and cultivate talents truly needed by the labor market.

Fourth, stabilize employment by promoting the matching of labor supply and demand.

Improve the unified and standardized human resources market across the country, cultivate a market environment in which labor factors flow in an orderly manner, and ensure that urban and rural workers can move freely according to market supply and demand and enjoy equal employment rights. Improve the national unified human resources and social protection public service platform, and allocate public resources according to the actual service management population size. Establish a coordinated and connected labor and talent mobility policy system and exchange and cooperation mechanism to stabilize employment through rational allocation of labor.

Improve the employment public service system and make every effort to consolidate grassroots employment services. We will sink employment public services to the grassroots, strengthen professional service teams in grassroots communities, and improve convenient service capabilities. In particular, we must integrate employment management services into the scope of party building leading grassroots governance.

Continuously improve the level of market-oriented human resources services. Give full play to the functions of market-oriented human resources service institutions to serve workers and employers, effectively resolve the problems of difficulties in recruiting enterprises and finding workers, and promote the coordinated development of the modern industrial system and human resources.

Fifth, stabilize employment by improving the employment security system.

Improve the income distribution system. Stabilizing and expanding employment focuses on ensuring workers 'labor income. Adhere to the basic synchronization of residents 'income growth and economic growth, and the basic synchronization of labor remuneration and the improvement of labor productivity. Improve the minimum wage standard adjustment mechanism, the wage determination, reasonable growth and payment guarantee mechanism for workers, ensure the basic income level of workers, increase the labor remuneration of workers, especially front-line workers, and gradually narrow the development gap between urban and rural areas and the gap in residents 'living standards.

Improve social protection levels. Increase investment in social and people's livelihood in an orderly manner, promote the equalization of basic public services such as education, elderly care, medical care, and housing security, and reasonably reduce the living burden of workers. Improve the social protection system, improve workers 'ability to cope with various risks, and enhance employment stability.

Ensure employment for key groups. We must adhere to equal emphasis on market orientation and government promotion, vigorously expand knowledge-based, management-based, and skill-based employment opportunities in fields such as the digital economy, make every effort to stabilize the supply of jobs in the public sector, strengthen policies to encourage business entities to absorb employment, and provide multi-level and diversified training and apprenticeship opportunities, provide accurate and effective employment services, and guide young people to actively find employment. Efforts will be made to promote the urbanization of migrant workers and promote stable employment of migrant workers in cities and towns. Strengthen policy support and services for migrant workers who return to their hometowns to start businesses and rural laborers who are employed nearby.

Ensure the employment of disadvantaged groups. Improve the employment policy system for disadvantaged groups such as public welfare positions, job-seeking and entrepreneurship subsidies, social insurance subsidies, and job subsidies, and continuously improve the employment assistance system to ensure that at least one person in a zero-employment family achieves employment. Implement a gradual extension of the legal retirement age, improve the human resources market and policy service system for the elderly as soon as possible, and support the re-employment of elderly people who are willing to find employment.

Improve the employment work system and mechanism and employment policy support system. It is necessary to build a promotion mechanism for employment integration work, incorporate the effectiveness of employment work into the high-quality development evaluation system, promote the linkage of various economic and social policies and employment policies, and form a synergy to stabilize employment. Adjust and optimize employment stabilization policies and form a systematic and full-chain policy support system to stabilize jobs and expand employment. Make every effort to strengthen employment monitoring and early warning to ensure the overall stability of the employment situation.

In short, by stabilizing employment from a strategic perspective and allowing residents to have stable income and expectations, we can give full play to the advantages of a huge population size and the expanding size of middle-income groups, and fully unleash consumption potential; we can make full use of the huge and continuous number of high-quality labor force. The advantages of increasing, enhance innovation vitality, improve supply quality, better meet diversified and personalized consumption needs, and form a scale effect of expanding domestic demand.

(The author is a second-level researcher at the China Academy of Labor and social protection Sciences)