China's cabinet urges all-out efforts in employment expansion

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Chinese media) -- China's State Council,

or the cabinet, issued a notice Tuesday that urged governments at all levels to

make every possible effort to expand employment.

The notice said that the deepening global financial

crisis makes it more difficult to offer jobs for new labor force and

unemployment risks continue to increase. In response, governments should adopt a

more vigorous employment policy to maintain stable employment and social order.

Governments at all levels should give priority to

employment of enterprise staff, college graduates, laid-off and migrant workers

and demobilized officers.

They should take active measures to reduce employment

burdens on enterprises and supervise their layoff activities to protect workers'

legal rights.

If an enterprise's job-cutting plan involves more

than 20 workers or more than 10 percent of the entire staff, the company should

file a report to the local trade union or notify all staff 30 days before the

layoff.

Tax authorities should offer exemptions, including

turnover tax and individual income tax, to laid-off workers who started their

own business and extend the exemption approval deadline to the end of 2009.

Enterprises that sign one-year or above contracts

with laid-off workers and pay their social insurance fees will also be exempted

from several taxes with the approval deadline also extended to the end of 2009.

Workers who fail to find employment by end of 2009

will be able to continue claiming social security subsidies for a maximum of one

year.

The notice also required governments to improve

employment services such as professional training, adding that new employment

and unemployment rates would be key factors in assessing government success.

Beijing to offer more jobs for May

quake survivors

BEIJING,

Feb. 10 (Chinese media) -- Beijing will arrange no less than 1,000 May quake survivors

of Shifang city, Sichuan Province, to work in the national capital this year,

according to the municipal bureau of labor and social security.

The city will also encourage local employment agencies to

collect information on jobs that are suitable for laborers from quake-hit areas

and publish advertisements via media to collect more job information, bureau

official Ren Jianxin said on Monday. Full story

Joint efforts to encourage students'

self-employment

BEIJING, Feb. 10 -- An article in Monday's China

Youth Daily calls for collective efforts from society to help university

graduates in self-employment.

The article says, the Changchun Municipal government

in Northeast China's Jilin Province recently issued a series of preferential

polices to university and professional college graduates who intend to start

their own businesses. The preferential policies include a reduction of sales tax

and government financial fund in bank loans. Full story

Ministry: China to create 775,000 jobs

through rural stores by end-2010

BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Chinese media) -- China will establish

250,000 rural retail stores by next year to create 775,000 jobs for migrant

workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the global economic crisis, a

Ministry of Commerce official said Monday.

Vice Commerce Minister Jiang Zengwei said this year

the ministry would set up 150,000 stores. This and the building of ancillary

services, including delivery centers and post offices, which would create "a

large amount of jobs" for migrant workers. Full story

Rising unemployment becomes China's

top challenge

BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Chinese media) -- A survey conducted by

China Economic Monitoring and Analysis Center predicted that rising unemployment

would be the biggest challenge for China's economy this year.

The survey showed, more than 90 percent of the 100

economists surveyed expressed their worries over the country's increasing

unemployment rate, which had added woes to a world economic downturn. Full story

Chinese Vice Premier: boost

employment, guarantee people's living

BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Chinese media) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li

Keqiang said Monday that employment and people's livelihood should be

guaranteed.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the

Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the

remarks when visiting the southern Guangdong Province, a major base for

export-oriented manufacturers that had provided jobs for many migrant

workers. Full story