Coordinate Policies and Work Together to Stabilize Employment

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that employment is the most fundamental aspect of people’s livelihoods, bearing on the immediate interests of the people, on the healthy development of the economy and society, and on the long-term stability and security of the country. Promoting high-quality and full employment is the new orientation and new mission for employment work on the new journey of the New Era. On April 25 of this year, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a meeting to analyze and study the current economic situation and economic work. The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to adhere to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, and to make every effort to stabilize employment, stabilize enterprises, stabilize the market, and stabilize expectations, using the certainty of high-quality development to respond to the uncertainty brought about by the drastic changes in the external environment. This is a decision and deployment made by the Party Central Committee based on a scientific assessment of the current and future economic and employment situation.

习近平总书记指出，就业是最基本的民生，事关人民群众切身利益，事关经济社会健康发展，事关国家长治久安。促进高质量充分就业，是新时代新征程就业工作的新定位、新使命。今年4月25日，中央政治局召开会议分析研究当前经济形势和经济工作。会议指出，要坚持稳中求进工作总基调，着力稳就业、稳企业、稳市场、稳预期，以高质量发展的确定性应对外部环境急剧变化的不确定性。这是党中央科学研判当前和今后一个时期经济和就业形势作出的决策部署。

I. The Overall Employment Situation Is Stable, but the Pressure Cannot Be Ignored

一、就业形势总体稳定，压力不容忽视

Facing a complex and volatile domestic and international situation, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, all regions and departments have resolutely implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, going all out to stabilize employment and protect employment, thereby maintaining the overall stability of the employment situation. From the perspective of employment growth, from January to June 2025, 6.95 million new urban jobs were created nationwide, achieving 58% of the annual target of 12 million new urban jobs, with employment growth meeting the scheduled progress. From the perspective of unemployment levels, in the first half of the year, the average surveyed urban unemployment rate nationwide was 5.2%, essentially flat compared with the same period last year. The trend shows a decline amid stability; in the second quarter, the national surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.0%, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from the first quarter. From the perspective of enterprise employment, the Purchasing Managers' Index for manufacturing and the Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index have maintained generally stable operation. From January to June, the average employee indices for manufacturing and non-manufacturing were 48.1 and 45.9 respectively. Other relevant enterprise monitoring data also indicate that while enterprise employment is weakening, it remains basically stable, with no large-scale concentrated layoffs occurring.

面对复杂多变的国内外形势，在以习近平同志为核心的党中央坚强领导下，各地区各部门坚决贯彻党中央、国务院决策部署，全力以赴稳就业保就业，保持了就业局势总体稳定。从就业增长看，2025年1—6月，全国城镇新增就业695万人，实现全年1200万城镇新增就业目标的58%，就业增长符合时序进度。从失业水平看，上半年，全国城镇调查失业率平均值为5.2%，与上年基本持平。从走势看稳中趋降，二季度，全国城镇调查失业率为5.0%，比一季度下降0.3个百分点。从企业用工看，制造业采购经理指数和非制造业商务活动指数保持总体平稳运行，1—6月制造业与非制造业的从业人员指数平均分别为48.1和45.9，其他相关企业监测数据也表明企业用工虽然趋弱但仍然基本稳定，没有出现大规模集中裁员现象。

However, it must also be recognized that the foundation for the sustained recovery and improvement of China’s economy needs further consolidation, the impact of external shocks is increasing, and the pressure on employment cannot be ignored. China’s employment development faces many uncertain factors in the international environment, the domestic economic structure is undergoing continuous adjustment, and the transformation of old and new growth drivers is in a critical stage of breaking through the old pattern and establishing a new one. Under the influence of the complex domestic and international environment, demand in the labor market has declined, the risk of potential unemployment by industry, region, and group has increased, structural contradictions have become prominent, and employment pressure has been accumulating. This is prominently manifested in the following aspects: First, employment growth has slowed. In the first half of the year, the number of new urban jobs decreased year-on-year, recruitment demand in the labor market declined, and labor market demand in some industries and regions with high dependence on exports to the United States was suppressed to a certain extent. Second, employment pressure on certain groups has increased. It has become more difficult for China’s urban unemployed persons and those facing employment difficulties to find re-employment. The employment pressure on young people, especially college graduates, continues unabated, and the surveyed unemployment rate for urban youth remains at a relatively high level. Third, enterprises are becoming increasingly cautious in hiring, and the flexibility of the labor market has increased. Flexible employment serves as a “regulator” and “reservoir” for the labor market, but the expansion of the scale of flexible employment has increased market instability.

但也要看到，我国经济持续回升向好的基础还需要进一步稳固，外部冲击影响加大，就业压力不容忽视。我国就业发展面临国际环境不确定因素较多，国内经济结构持续调整，新旧动能转换正处于破局成势的关键阶段。在国内外复杂环境影响下，劳动力市场需求下滑，行业性、区域性、群体性潜在失业风险增加，结构性矛盾凸显，就业压力不断累积。突出表现在：一是就业增长放缓。上半年，城镇新增就业同比减少，劳动力市场招聘需求出现下滑，部分对美出口依赖度较高的行业和地区劳动力市场需求受到一定程度抑制。二是部分群体就业压力加大。我国城镇失业人员、就业困难人员再就业难度加大。以高校毕业生为重点的青年就业压力持续不减，城镇青年调查失业率仍处于相对较高水平。三是企业用工日趋谨慎，劳动力市场灵活性加大。灵活就业是劳动力市场的“调节器”“蓄水池”，但灵活就业规模的扩大增加了市场的不稳定性。

II. Stabilizing Employment Under the New Situation Has Major Strategic Significance

二、新形势下稳就业具有重大战略意义

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that employment is the greatest livelihood project, the greatest project for winning people’s hearts, and the foundational project. Under the new situation, the Party Central Committee has once again placed stabilizing employment at the top of the “Four Stabilizations,” [1]1 The “Four Stabilizations” (四稳) refers to stabilizing employment, stabilizing enterprises, stabilizing the market, and stabilizing expectations, as outlined in the April 2025 meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. highlighting the priority position of stabilizing employment in the overall work layout. This has strong practical relevance and great significance.

习近平总书记指出，就业是最大的民生工程、民心工程、根基工程。新形势下，党中央再次将稳就业置于“四稳”首位，突出稳就业在总体工作布局中的优先地位，具有很强的现实针对性和重大意义。

Highlighting the stabilization of employment is conducive to building an employment-friendly development model. Employment links the economy with people’s livelihoods. A stable employment situation can provide time and space for industrial upgrading and the transformation of the economic development model, offering strong support for high-quality development. Stabilizing employment is conducive to fully, accurately, and comprehensively implementing the new development philosophy, better realizing a positive interaction between economic development and employment growth, building an employment-friendly development model, and ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods through development. This can prevent the phenomenon of “jobless growth” that may arise when policy formulation and work practice prioritize economic growth over improving people’s livelihoods, and in the development model, emphasize capital- and technology-intensive industries while neglecting traditional labor-intensive industries.

突出稳就业有利于构建就业友好型发展方式。就业关联经济与民生。稳定的就业形势，可以为产业提质升级、经济发展模式转换提供时间和空间，为高质量发展提供有力支撑。稳就业有利于完整准确全面贯彻新发展理念，更好实现经济发展与就业增长良性互动，构建就业友好型发展方式，在发展中保障和改善民生。这样可以避免政策制定和工作实践中出现重视经济增长忽视民生改善，在发展方式上重视资本和技术密集型产业，忽视传统劳动密集型产业而出现“无就业增长”现象。

Highlighting the stabilization of employment is conducive to consolidating the foundation for achieving a social governance that is both stable, orderly, and full of vitality. Employment is not only a barometer of the economy but also a stabilizer of society. Promoting employment and preventing unemployment are important components of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Especially under conditions of a tightening economic environment and increasing employment pressure, strengthening policy support for employment, improving the employment assistance system for the large number of new entrants to the labor market, such as college graduates, as well as for groups facing employment difficulties such as those lifted out of poverty, the long-term unemployed, and persons with disabilities, stabilizing the employment of all types of workers, preventing large-scale unemployment, reducing unemployment and poverty, and strengthening the bottom line of social security are important ways to maintain the stable and safe operation of the economy and achieve social stability and order.

突出稳就业有利于夯实实现社会治理稳定有序又充满活力的基础。就业既是经济的晴雨表，也是社会的稳定器。促进就业、防止失业是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要内容。特别是在经济环境趋紧、就业压力增大条件下，加大就业政策支持力度，完善针对规模庞大的高校毕业生等新进入劳动力市场群体，以及脱贫劳动力、长期失业人员、残疾人等就业困难群体就业帮扶体系，稳定各类劳动者就业，防止规模性失业，减少失业和贫困，筑牢社会安全底线，是维护经济平稳安全运行、实现社会稳定有序的重要途径。

Highlighting the stabilization of employment is conducive to responding to external shocks and winning international competitive advantages. Currently, international political and economic contradictions are prominent, geopolitical conflicts are frequent, and uncertainty in the world economy is increasing. The direct and indirect impacts of this on China’s economy and employment cannot be ignored. In the increasingly fierce competition among major powers and the reconstruction of the world economic order, firmly establishing the principle of giving priority to employment, maintaining the basic stability of China’s employment situation, and promoting high-quality and full employment in a large country with a population of over 1.4 billion are conducive to maintaining strategic focus, winning new competitive advantages, and also conducive to enhancing international discourse power and dominance in the international struggle in the labor field, thereby grasping the initiative in our work.

突出稳就业有利于应对外部冲击，赢得国际竞争优势。当前国际政经矛盾突出、地缘冲突频发，世界经济不确定性增加，由此引发的直接和间接影响对我国经济和就业造成的冲击不容忽视。在日益激烈的大国博弈、 世界经济秩序重构中，应对各种不确定性和潜在风险，牢牢树立就业优先原则，保持我国就业形势基本稳定，促进14亿多人口大国的高质量充分就业，有利于保持战略定力，赢得新的竞争优势，同时也有利于在国际劳动领域斗争中提升国际话语权和主导权，把握工作主动性。

III. Coordinate Policies to Achieve High-Quality and Full Employment

三、统筹施策实现高质量充分就业

The employment issue involves all aspects of economic and social development and is also affected by a multitude of complex factors. It is necessary to unswervingly implement the policy of “workers finding jobs on their own initiative, the market regulating employment, and the government promoting employment and encouraging entrepreneurship,” fully mobilize and leverage the initiative of the market, the government, society, and workers, coordinate policies and work together to stabilize the employment situation, and promote high-quality and full employment.

就业问题涉及经济社会发展的方方面面，也受到纷繁复杂的各种因素影响，需要坚定不移贯彻“劳动者自主就业、市场调节就业、政府促进就业和鼓励创业”的方针，充分调动和发挥市场、政府、社会和劳动者各方积极性，统筹施策、协力同心稳定就业局势，促进高质量充分就业。

Make every effort to tap potential and expand capacity in job positions, and expand employment opportunities in multiple ways. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that it is necessary to unswervingly implement the new development philosophy, more consciously make high-quality and full employment the priority target of economic and social development, so that the process of high-quality development becomes a process of improving the quality and expanding the capacity of employment, and increase the employment-driving force of development. Cultivating and expanding new employment growth points in economic development is the fundamental way to achieve stable employment. It is necessary to vigorously promote the integrated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, coordinate the development of traditional industries, emerging industries, and future industries, and enhance the employment absorption capacity of economic development. Intensify efforts to tap potential and expand capacity in key areas, key industries, urban and rural grassroots units, and small and medium-sized enterprises, support key groups in employment and entrepreneurship, and clarify the key directions for implementing job development plans. Focus on key areas such as the development of new quality productive forces, the creation of new consumption hotspots, the implementation of key engineering projects, and the provision of basic public services, introduce incentive policies, and increase the release of job positions. Implement job development plans for emerging industries and future industries, establishing chain services for them that include job collection and reserve, specialized skills training, human resources services, and employment policy support. Implement an “Artificial Intelligence +” job creation action, promote the integrated development of AI with high-end manufacturing and modern service industries, and create more employment opportunities. Promote the development of lifestyle service industries such as cultural tourism, sports and fitness, and elderly care services, create new economic growth points while ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods, and expand new spaces for employment.

着力岗位挖潜扩容，多方面扩大就业机会。习近平总书记指出，要坚定不移贯彻新发展理念，更加自觉地把高质量充分就业作为经济社会发展的优先目标，使高质量发展的过程成为就业提质扩容的过程，提高发展的就业带动力。在经济发展中培育和扩大新的就业增长点，是实现稳就业的根本途径。要大力推进一二三产业融合发展，统筹传统产业、新兴产业与未来产业发展，提高经济发展的就业吸纳能力。加力重点领域、重点行业、城乡基层和中小微企业岗位挖潜扩容，支持重点群体就业创业，明确实施岗位开发计划的重点方向。围绕新质生产力发展、消费新热点打造、重点工程项目实施、基本民生服务提供等重点领域，出台激励政策，加大岗位释放力度。实施新兴产业、未来产业岗位开发计划，对其建立岗位归集储备、专项技能培训、人力资源服务、就业政策支持的链式服务。实施“人工智能+”就业岗位创造行动，推动人工智能与高端制造业、现代服务业融合发展，创造更多就业机会。推动文化旅游、体育健身、养老服务等生活性服务业发展，在保障和改善民生中打造新的经济增长点，拓展就业新空间。

Increase efforts to invest in people, and implement large-scale skills training initiatives to enhance workers’ capacity for sustainable development. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that we must increase efforts to invest in people, attach great importance to training for migrant workers, professional farmers, demobilised military personnel, and others, and promptly provide re-skilling training for laid-off and unemployed workers, so that workers can better adapt to the changed market environment. Under the current circumstances, we should channel more financial resources to “investing in people” and serving people’s livelihoods, promote increases in residents’ incomes and reductions in their burdens, support the expansion of employment, and form a virtuous cycle of economic development and improvement of people’s wellbeing. Carry out large-scale vocational skills training initiatives, deeply implement the “Skills Illuminate the Path Ahead” initiative [2]2 “Skills Illuminate the Path Ahead” initiative: a Chinese government programme launched in 2025 to expand vocational skills training and improve employment outcomes., strive to expand the scale of skills training and raise the rate of worker participation in training, and achieve full coverage of the labour force and full coverage of career trajectories. Adhere to an employment-oriented direction for vocational skills training, focus on innovating the training system and mechanisms, integrate departmental functions and training resources, coordinate the use of various types of training funds, update training content and training methods and approaches, and while expanding the quantity of training, pay even more attention to improving training quality. Implement a four-in-one project-based training model of “job demand + skills training + skills assessment + employment services”, implement differentiated subsidy support, and better link training with employment and income increases. Carry out specialised training in fields such as artificial intelligence, the digital economy, the silver economy [3]3 Silver economy: economic activities related to serving the needs of an ageing population, including healthcare, elderly care, and related services., the green economy, and the low-altitude economy [4]4 Low-altitude economy: economic activities involving the use of low-altitude airspace (typically below 1,000 metres), such as drone delivery, aerial photography, and urban air mobility.. For enterprises significantly affected by technological updates, replacement of production lines and equipment, product innovation, market adjustments, and tariff policies, organise on-the-job training and job-transfer training, so as to maintain the stability of workers’ employment and the sustainability of their career development.

加大力度投资于人，实施大规模技能培训行动提升劳动者可持续发展能力。习近平总书记指出，要加大投资于人的力度，高度重视对农民工、职业农民、退役军人等的培训，及时对下岗失业人员进行技能再培训，使劳动者更好适应变化了的市场环境。在当前形势下，要推动更多资金资源“投资于人”、服务于民生，促进居民增收减负、支持扩大就业，形成经济发展和民生改善的良性循环。开展大规模职业技能培训行动，深入实施“技能照亮前程”行动，努力扩大技能培训规模、提升职工参训率，实现劳动群体全覆盖、职业生涯全涵盖。坚持就业导向的职业技能培训方向，着力创新培训体系机制、整合部门职能和培训资源、统筹使用各类培训资金，更新培训内容和培训方式方法，在扩大培训量的同时，更加注意提高培训质量。推行“岗位需求+技能培训+技能评价+就业服务”四位一体的项目化培训模式，落实差异化补贴支持，推动培训和就业、增收更好地挂钩。开展针对人工智能、数字经济、银发经济、绿色经济、低空经济等领域专项培训。针对受技术更新、产线设备更换、产品创新、市场调整，以及关税政策影响较大的企业组织在岗培训、转岗培训等，保持劳动者就业的稳定和职业发展的可持续性。

Strengthen service guarantees, and focus on employment assistance and safety-net support for key groups. For groups such as college graduates, migrant workers, workers who have shaken off poverty, people with employment difficulties, and the long-term unemployed, when the market mechanism cannot solve employment problems, we must strengthen the employment guarantee function of public policies and the safety-net assistance efforts of public employment services. Accelerate the implementation of the “Opinions on Further Improving the Public Employment Service System” issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other departments, as well as relevant measures for doing a good job of youth employment for college graduates in 2025, further improve a public employment service system that is equal and universally beneficial, complete in functions, precise in assistance, consolidated in foundation, and empowered by digital technology, and provide public employment services to urban and rural workers and employers locally. Adhere to the principle of active employment guarantees, and by expanding work-relief schemes [5]5 Work-relief schemes (以工代赈): a Chinese policy tool that provides temporary employment on public works projects as a form of social assistance, rather than direct cash transfers. and developing public-benefit positions [6]6 Public-benefit positions (公益性岗位): government-created jobs, often in community services or environmental maintenance, targeted at workers with employment difficulties. and other means, bring workers into the labour process, and encourage and support them in obtaining livelihood security through labour. Organise and mobilise public employment service institutions and human resources service enterprises to organise special job fairs, target job placements, and help workers transfer to new jobs. Expand channels for out-migrant work and nearby employment, increase support for work-relief schemes, explore the use of special government bonds for work-relief and similar projects, expand the scope of work-relief from areas such as engineering construction to areas such as people’s livelihoods and social services, promote employment and income increases for migrant workers, and stabilise the scale of migrant employment for the 30 million people who have shaken off poverty. Strengthen employment assistance for people in difficulty, and secure and firmly hold the bottom line of employment for disadvantaged groups.

强化服务保障，突出重点群体就业帮扶与兜底保障。针对高校毕业生、农民工、脱贫劳动力、就业困难人员、长期失业人员等群体，在市场机制难以解决就业时，要加强公共政策的就业保障功能和公共就业服务兜底帮扶力度。加快落实人力资源社会保障部等部门发布的《关于进一步健全就业公共服务体系的意见》以及关于做好2025年高校毕业生等青年就业工作的有关措施，进一步健全均等普惠、功能完备、帮扶精准、基础巩固、数字赋能的就业公共服务体系，为城乡劳动者和用人单位就地就近提供就业公共服务。坚持积极的就业保障原则，通过扩大以工代赈、开发公益性岗位等方式，将劳动者纳入劳动过程中来，鼓励支持其通过劳动获得生活保障。组织动员公共就业服务机构和人力资源服务企业，组织专场招聘，定向投放岗位，帮助劳动者转岗就业。拓展外出务工和就近就业渠道，加大以工代赈支持，探索将特别国债用于以工代赈等项目，扩展以工代赈范畴，从工程建设等领域向民生和社会服务等领域拓展，促进农民工就业增收，稳住3000万脱贫人口的务工就业规模。强化困难人员就业援助，兜住兜牢困难群体就业底线。

Effectively strengthen protection of labour rights and interests, and focus on enhancing the capacity for early warning, prevention, and control of risks in the employment field. Establish a more reasonable income distribution system, stabilise and effectively increase the incomes of low-income groups, and steadily expand the scale of the middle-income group. Improve the mechanisms for determining workers’ wages, for reasonable wage growth, and for guaranteeing wage payments. Increase the intensity and precision of adjustments through taxation, social security, and transfer payments. Improve the social security system, improve the social security system for flexible-employment workers, migrant workers, and workers in new forms of employment, and expand the coverage of unemployment, work-related injury, and maternity insurance. Improve the mechanism for the reasonable mobility of workers, and guarantee equal employment rights. Eliminate unreasonable restrictions and employment discrimination based on region, identity, gender, age, and other factors that affect equal employment. Strengthen labour security supervision and law enforcement, strengthen efforts to address such problems as wage arrears and social insurance arrears, excessive overtime, illegal layoffs, and job-seeking traps, and safeguard workers’ legitimate rights and interests in areas such as labour remuneration, rest and leave, labour safety, skills training, social insurance, and welfare. Strengthen corporate social responsibility, and incorporate employment quality indicators such as wage levels, occupational health, and training investment into the corporate evaluation system, linking them to tax preferences, government procurement eligibility, and other factors. Strengthen monitoring and early warning, policy reserves, and emergency response in the employment field. Adhere to bottom-line thinking, and formulate contingency plans to cope with the impact of major external risks. For key regions, industries, and enterprises that are applying intelligent and automated technologies on a large scale, strengthen monitoring of job changes. For the employment difficulties of older and low-skilled workers brought about by transformation and upgrading, formulate plans for diversion and placement, and when necessary, implement an “employment guarantee plan” to provide safety-net assistance.

切实加强劳动权益保障，着力提升就业领域风险预警防控能力。建立更加合理的收入分配制度，稳定和有效增加低收入群体收入、稳步扩大中等收入群体规模。完善劳动者工资决定、合理增长、支付保障机制。加大税收、社保、转移支付等调节力度和精准性。完善社会保障体系，健全灵活就业人员、农民工、新就业形态人员社保制度，扩大失业、工伤、生育保险覆盖面。完善劳动者合理流动机制，保障平等就业权利。消除地域、身份、性别、年龄等影响平等就业的不合理限制和就业歧视。加强劳动保障监察执法，加强治理欠薪欠保、过度加班、违法裁员、求职陷阱等乱象，维护劳动者在劳动报酬、休息休假、劳动安全、技能培训、社会保险和福利等方面的合法权益。强化企业社会责任，将薪资水平、职业健康、培训投入等就业质量纳入企业评价体系，与税收优惠、政府采购资格等挂钩。强化就业领域监测预警、政策储备和应急处置。坚持底线思维，制定应对外部重大风险冲击的预案。对大规模应用智能化、自动化的重点地区、行业、企业，加强岗位变化监测。对转型升级带来的大龄、低技能劳动者就业难问题，制定分流安置方案，必要时实施“就业保障计划”予以兜底帮扶。

(The author is Director and Researcher of the Employment and Entrepreneurship Office at the Chinese Academy of Labour and Social Security)

（作者系中国劳动和社会保障科学研究院就业创业室主任、研究员）

Online editor: Ma Jingren

网络编辑：马京仁