Focus interview丨In the past five years, what challenges have my country's employment situation encountered?
how to respond?
Employment leads to tens of millions of families on one side and the general economic situation on the other. It is the largest livelihood project and an important guarantee for social stability.
Looking back on the five years during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the domestic economic growth rate shifted, the international environment was complex and changeable, and the sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic brought many problems to my country's employment situation.
In the past five years, we have overcome difficulties and climbed the hurdles to complete the goal of more than 50 million new jobs in cities and towns in the 13th Five-Year Plan. This achievement has not come easily.
During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, my country adhered to the strategy of giving priority to employment, implemented a more active employment policy, and maintained a sustained and stable employment situation.
The labor participation rate and employment rate are always at a relatively high level in the major economies.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, from 2016 to 2019, a total of 53.78 million new urban jobs nationwide have been created.
By the end of 2019, the total number of employed people in the country reached 774.71 million, of which 444.47 million were employed in urban areas, an increase of 9.5% over the end of 2015.
The unemployment rate has remained low, below the 5.5% control target. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the number of newly-increased urban jobs in my country has exceeded 60 million.
Behind the achievements, my country's employment work has overcome numerous pressures and challenges.
Since the "13th Five-Year Plan", the domestic and international environment has been very complicated, which has brought many challenges to my country's employment work.
2016 is the first year of the "13th Five-Year Plan" and the beginning of my country's supply-side structural reform. At that time, China's economy was characterized by shifts in growth, structural optimization, and kinetic energy conversion, and employment pressure also increased sharply. Big.
The “three removals, one reduction and one compensation” of reducing overcapacity, destocking, deleveraging, reducing costs, and making up for shortcomings is an important part of the supply-side structural reform. The placement of employees in the process of overcapacity reduction is the top priority. 2016 Many places and enterprises in our country are facing the problem of reemployment of employees.
Steel companies bear the brunt of capacity reduction.
As the largest steel company in Southwest my country, Pangang Group was facing a very severe test of survival at that time due to the elimination of backward production capacity.
For the transformation and upgrading of overcapacity, Panzhihua Iron and Steel has to "break arms to survive", and after overcapacity is removed, what should the corresponding employees' jobs do?
In 2016, Pansteel Group's Panchang Iron and Steel Group shut down small electric furnaces under 40 tons, entered the plant at the age of 17, and made steel for 31 years. Xia Gang, who is nearly 50 years old, will face a new life choice after finishing his last post.
Having worked in a company for more than 30 years, now that he is too old, single-skilled, and there are young and old, and lost his iron job, what should I do in the future?
Panzhihua Iron and Steel has adopted multiple channels for the placement of diverted employees from “enterprise internal placement, external employment and entrepreneurship, internal retirement, and social support”.
At the same time, combined with the special funds of the Ministry of Finance to solve the worries of these people.
Faced with the reemployment choices of employees, Panzhihua allows employees to decide whether to go and stay.
Those who want to stay can participate in competitive employment and choose the best hiring, or they can choose to take a compensation to re-employ themselves. The local government also has corresponding subsidy policies for them.
Feng Xin, former deputy director of the Employment Service Administration of Panzhihua City, Sichuan: “Unemployed people can go to the community to apply for unemployment insurance of 966 yuan per month, organize vocational skills training, improve their re-employment skills, and promote their re-employment.”
With policies and funds, the pace of capacity reduction has been much smoother.
After many trade-offs, Xia Gang finally chose to buy out his seniority and left the company with compensation.
One year later, after free vocational training provided by the government, Xia Gang found a new job in a travel agency.
By 2017, my country's supply-side structural reform has entered a deepening stage, and the problem of employee placement caused by overcapacity has become more prominent, in order to further settle and divert employees.
In 2017, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Development and Reform Commission and other five departments jointly issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Placement of Overcapacity Workers in 2017", which emphasized the need to provide "one-to-one" employment assistance to people with employment difficulties.
By 2018, with the continuous advancement of my country's supply-side structural reforms, the conversion of old and new momentum has accelerated.
Coupled with the escalation of Sino-US trade frictions, low-end manufacturing and labor-intensive industries in coastal areas such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta have been impacted. Many such factories in coastal areas have closed or laid off workers. Most of the workers in these enterprises are Migrant workers from the central and western regions.
In 2018, the wave of migrant workers returning home from coastal areas became more and more turbulent, and the employment problem of these people after returning home has become a deep hurdle for them and the local government.
Xie Yajun is one of the migrant workers returning home from the coast. He went out to work in his early 20s, working in electrical and clothing factories in Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places.
Later, with the transfer of industries, more and more factories were relocated or closed, and jobs in coastal areas became more and more difficult to find. In 2018, Xie Yajun returned to his hometown in Henan from Dongguan.
The house leak happened in the evening rain. After returning to his hometown, as the only labor in the family, Xie Yajun could not find a suitable job for a while. At this time, Xie Yajun's father fell ill with another serious illness, which made the otherwise wealthy family worse.
Sui County is a typical labor-exporting county. Starting in 2016, Sui County has seized the opportunity to transfer the shoe industry from coastal areas to build a shoe industry cluster and attract shoe companies to settle down.
Xie Yajun was very happy with the opportunity of employment at the door of his house. However, he went to the shoe factory for several interviews but failed.
Xie Yajun, a shoe factory worker in Sui County, Shangqiu, Henan, said: “I’m very young, physically strong, and able to work, but I don’t have much skill. I also want to work and I want to get a higher salary. Knowing where to go, running around like a headless fly."
The county’s Human Resources and Social Security Department found that on the one hand, the shoe factory was eager to hire workers and could not hire people, and on the other, the workers were unskilled and could not find jobs.
At this time, the county, in accordance with the "Occupational Skills Improvement Action Plan" issued by the state, specially carried out order-based training for shoe manufacturers. After professional technical training, Xie Yajun successfully entered the shoe factory.
At present, there are more than 200 shoe-making and supporting enterprises in Sui County, Henan, and more young people like Xie Yajun who go out to work have returned to their hometowns for employment.
It has withstood the employment pressure brought about by economic growth shifts and industrial restructuring.
From 2016 to 2019, a total of 22.09 million urban unemployed people across the country achieved reemployment, and helped 12.13 million poverty-stricken laborers to find employment.
At the beginning of 2020, the sudden outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has spread globally. Some factories and enterprises have suspended work and production, business orders have been drastically reduced, and employees of enterprises cannot return to work on time. Many people have once again encountered an unprecedented crisis.
In response to this sudden challenge, my country has proposed to do a good job of the "six stability and six guarantees", in which whether it is the "six stability" or the "six guarantees", employment is the first priority.
At the same time, the government and all walks of life have taken various measures to charter cars and flights for returning employees, reduce taxes and fees for enterprises, and make a lot of efforts to resume work and production.
Lu Ruofan, a graduate of Beijing colleges and universities, is currently receiving some translation work through the Internet at his home. In order to reduce the pressure on these graduates, in July this year, Beijing introduced policies and measures to promote employment to support graduates in flexible employment.
According to the policy, Beijing will grant this year's college graduates a flexible employment social security subsidy of up to 3 years, 930 yuan per month, and those who meet the conditions can apply from September.
Despite the ferocity of the epidemic, in the first three quarters of this year, my country achieved 8.98 million new jobs in cities and towns across the country, completing 99.8% of the annual target.
In recent years, the rapid development of the digital economy has also spawned new business formats and new job opportunities, and new occupations such as online booking distributors, live broadcast salesmen, and digital managers have emerged rapidly.
In July of this year, 13 departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Opinions on Supporting the Healthy Development of New Business Forms and New Models, Activating the Consumer Market to Drive Employment Expansion", and clearly proposed 15 for the first time. New business forms and new models encourage the development of new individual economies and open up new spaces for consumption and employment.
In the five years of the "13th Five-Year Plan", my country has completed its set employment goals and basically achieved full employment.
In the future, as China's economy moves towards high-quality development, my country's employment work will face new challenges.
2020 is the final year of building a well-off society in all respects and the 13th Five-Year Plan.
Stabilizing employment is crucial, and high-quality employment is a major feature of my country's economic operation, and it is the most intuitive reflection of China's economic resilience.
Practice has proved that employment is an important means for economic development to benefit people's livelihood.
If the employment work is done well, the people's living standards will be continuously improved, the society will be more harmonious and stable, and economic growth will be more powerful.