Shanghai unveils ambitious employment plans

Shanghai aims to control its unemployment rate below 5.5 percent and create at least 500,000 jobs annually over the next five years, according to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2015) released by the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau on Tuesday.

In the first three quarters this year, Shanghai created 570,000 new jobs, supported 11,635 people in starting businesses and helped 9,836 long-term unemployed young people find jobs or start businesses, all exceeding its yearly targets.

In the past five years, about 600,000 jobs were added each year, with the unemployment rate kept within 5.5 percent and the ratio of highly skilled laborers increasing from 30.18 percent to 35.03 percent. The city helped about 60,000 people start their own business.

Shanghai also aims to provide 5 million training opportunities for laborers and add more than 200,000 highly skilled workers.

It will keep 12 percent of its population active in entrepreneurial activities.

While trying to increase the number of people insured by the basic pension insurance for urban workers to 17 million by 2025, the city also aims to add 500,000 people to those insured by the supplementary pension scheme, with the insurance capital scale enlarged by 50 billion yuan (US$7.82 billion).

By the end of last year, supplementary pension insurance covered 10,200 enterprises with more than 1.4 million employees. Its fund had reached about 97.46 billion yuan.

To improve service efficiency, the bureau plans to bring all services related to employment and social security online. It will also improve convenience for residents in the Yangtze River Delta region to enjoy employment and social security services.