Do everything possible to stabilize and expand employment (authoritative interview)
——Interview with Liu Shangxi, President of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences
Our reporter Qu Zhehan
"People's Daily" (Version 02, September 26, 2020)
Employment is the foundation of people's livelihood.
Under the current international and domestic situation, what is the significance of ensuring employment for residents?
In the next step, how should we continue to make efforts to ensure the employment of residents?
To meet the needs of building a new development pattern, what reforms in the field of people's livelihood should be accelerated?
The reporter interviewed Liu Shangxi, president of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.
Ensuring the employment of residents is a key part of the “six stability” work and the implementation of the “six guarantees” task, and the effect of the employment priority policy has initially appeared
Reporter: How do you view the importance of ensuring employment for residents?
What is the current employment situation?
Liu Shangxi: There are two main meanings to ensure the employment of residents:
——Ensuring employment of residents is a key part of doing a good job in the “six guarantees” and fulfilling the tasks of “six guarantees”.
Employment is connected to economic development at one end, and to the protection of people's livelihood at the other end.
At present, wages are the main source of income for Chinese residents, and the protection of individuals and families still fundamentally depends on labor income.
Only by preserving the main body of the market can the employment of residents be effectively preserved and the basic livelihood of the people can be preserved.
As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "The normal production of enterprises can guarantee the normal operation of the national economy and create employment opportunities for everyone. If everyone has income, there is protection at home."
Since the beginning of this year, the central and local governments have comprehensively strengthened their employment stabilization measures, and introduced a series of hard measures, such as increasing credit allocation, reducing or exempting value-added tax, reducing and exempting part of social security fees, and refunding unemployment insurance premiums, etc., to maintain the stability of the industrial supply chain. Stabilizing the economic market, but also allowing thousands of households to stabilize their "rice bowls."
In terms of major employment indicators, from January to August, 7.81 million new jobs were created in cities and towns across the country, completing 86.8% of the annual target; the urban survey unemployment rate dropped from a peak of 6.2% in February to 5.6% in August.
The effect of the employment priority policy has initially appeared.
——Ensuring employment of residents is an important aspect of building a new development pattern.
Employment leads both consumption and supply.
General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward at the symposium of experts in the economic and social fields that “enhancing the adaptability of the supply system to domestic demand and forming a higher level of dynamic balance in which demand drives supply and supply creates demand”.
The connection point and power point between the supply and demand systems is employment.
This is because, on the one hand, the overall stability of employment can improve residents’ income expectations and increase consumption willingness, which is the basic condition for expanding final consumption and stimulating domestic demand; on the other hand, it also provides support for improving supply.
For example, self-employed businesses, small and micro enterprises, and other entrepreneurs that target market demand have better met the consumer demand of the people and prospered the domestic market; high-tech companies, manufacturing companies, etc. have continued to recruit talents and compete with highly skilled talents. To achieve a benign interaction between China and China, to provide human capital support for China's manufacturing towards China's creation and China's intelligent manufacturing.
Stimulate the endogenous motivation of market entities to ensure the employment of residents, and remove obstacles to flexible employment
Reporter: In the next step, how should we continue to make efforts to ensure the employment of residents?
Liu Shangxi: At present, my country's economic development is steadily improving, production and life order is steadily restored, development resilience and vitality are further demonstrated, and people's livelihood is effectively guaranteed.
But from a global perspective, the epidemic is still developing further.
The international economic situation is still complicated and severe, with great uncertainty and instability.
In this case, we must estimate the difficulties more fully and think of the measures to solve the problem more comprehensively and farther.
In the early stage, in response to the impact of the epidemic, we introduced a series of fiscal and monetary policy measures. Next, we will use reforms to stimulate the endogenous driving force of the market.
The same should be done to ensure the employment of residents.
To ensure residents’ employment and increase internal forces, we must first clarify two concepts-
One is to look at the number of jobs and also the status of employment.
At present, individual industrial and commercial households, micro-enterprises and other flexible employees have accounted for about half of the employed population in my country's urban areas, such as cargo anchors and online car-hailing drivers. They are both laborers and suppliers.
In formulating employment policies in the future, we should not only look at the fixed-employees, but also take into account these flexible employees, and at the same time improve the coordination with the expansion of consumption policies, and promote the adaptation of supply and demand.
The second is to create jobs, but also to create an environment.
Ensuring employment for residents is not simply about expanding investment to stimulate the economy to create jobs, or investing directly in purchasing jobs.
In the long run, it is still necessary to deepen the reform of the economic system to improve the efficiency of the allocation of labor production factors, so that people can flow freely and make full use of their talents.
At the same time, it is necessary to continuously optimize the business environment and use the fertile soil of the market economy to promote and nurture more corporate "golden seeds" to grow into towering trees.
The most urgent task is to sort out the existing rules and regulations as soon as possible to remove obstacles to flexible employment.
To ensure the employment of residents and increase their internal strength, we must grasp three starting points-
One is to attach importance to migrant workers.
A large number of migrant workers are wandering between urban and rural areas. Most of their jobs and incomes are unstable. They also face difficulties in labor skills training and access to urban basic public services.
This affects the improvement of their personal ability and income, and at the same time increases the labor cost of enterprises, reduces the efficiency of human capital accumulation in the whole society, and suppresses the total social demand.
In the future, the employment issue must be looked at not only on the sufficiency of employment, but also on the stability and equality of the employment of migrant workers.
The second is to attach importance to small and micro enterprises.
Small and micro enterprises are the main battlefield for absorbing employment. In the long run, supporting small and micro enterprises and encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation is an important measure to promote China's economic development.
To help small and micro enterprises grow, monetary and fiscal policies need to increase precision drip irrigation. At the same time, it is necessary to promote reforms and strengthen services, encourage the development of private banks, expand inclusive finance, industrial chain finance, and digital finance, and solve the financing difficulties of small and micro enterprises Expensive question.
The third is to make good use of new professions and new positions such as the new economy and new platforms.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Bureau of Statistics recently announced 9 new occupations, including new occupations such as "blockchain engineering and technical personnel", "Internet marketing engineer", and "live salesperson" and "Internet information auditor". From the new economy, new platform.
The Internet has given birth to diversified entrepreneurship and employment models, and the number of users covered by online marketing such as live broadcast and delivery has reached more than 800 million people.
The development of digital technology has greatly expanded the space for us to smooth supply and demand and solve employment problems. We must dare to use, make good use of, and make good use of these new occupations and new positions.
Continuously improve people's livelihood and provide a strong impetus to accelerate the formation of a new development pattern
Reporter: To meet the needs of building a new development pattern, what reforms in the field of people's livelihood should be promoted?
Liu Shangxi: Let the common people live a good life is the starting point and end of all our work.
Speeding up the formation of a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the main body and the domestic and international dual cycles promoting each other is fundamentally for the benefit of the Chinese people and the people of the world.
At the same time, we speed up social reforms in the field of people's livelihood and continue to improve people's livelihood, which can also provide a strong impetus to accelerate the formation of a new development pattern.
—— Accelerate the construction of a fairer and more sustainable social security system, establish a unified basic pension and basic medical insurance system for urban and rural residents, transfer part of the state-owned capital to enrich the social security fund, effectively protect the basic life of the masses, improve mass consumption expectations, and help smooth the domestic cycle.
-Accelerate the integrated development of urban and rural compulsory education, promote educational equality, and encourage the development of private education.
Promote the fairness of the starting point of urban and rural children, narrow the gap in ability and wealth between urban and rural population, accelerate the accumulation of human capital, and create conditions for narrowing the distribution gap in development.
——Accelerate the reform of the science and technology system and promote the growth of talents.
The total number of scientific research personnel in my country is the largest in the world, which is the most precious resource.
We must continue to deepen the reform of decentralization, regulation and service in the field of science and technology, give scientific research institutions the legal person autonomy, so that they have more time and energy to concentrate on research, enhance the endogenous motivation of scientific and technological innovation, and enhance industrial competitiveness and development in the process of constructing a new development pattern. Initiative.
-Deepen the reform of the cultural system, clarify the boundaries of cultural undertakings and industries, promote cultural development through industrial development, and provide the people with richer cultural products while enhancing cultural confidence and enhancing the international influence of Chinese culture.
——Accelerate the reform of the household registration system, relax the opening and liberalization of urban household registration conditions, deepen the reform of the convenience of government services, solve the problem of registered household registration for people without household registration, and improve the efficiency of the allocation of labor factors.
—— Deepen the reform of the fiscal and taxation system, promote the matching of powers, financial resources, and capabilities between the central and local governments, rationally allocate expenditure responsibilities between governments at all levels, and strengthen fiscal responsibilities in jurisdictions; deepen the reform of the transfer payment system to let "money follow people", Public services follow people, government investment follow people, provide support for the free flow and efficient allocation of labor elements, and support the development of people themselves; strengthen mid- and long-term budget reforms to provide guidance and guarantee for reforms in other fields.