Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 25th. Topic: Consolidate the foundation of people’s livelihood and improve people’s well-being – “China’s Decade” series of press conferences focus on employment and social security achievements in the new era
Xinhua News Agency reporters Jiang Lin and Liu Xiacun
On August 25, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a series of press conferences on the theme of “This Decade of China” in Beijing, focusing on the achievements of employment and social security in the new era.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liangkuai
Employment is the foundation of people’s livelihood, and social security is the basic institutional guarantee for ensuring and improving people’s livelihood. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, my country has made historic achievements in employment and social security work. A total of 130 million new urban jobs have been created, and the world‘s largest social security system has been built. , which has effectively improved the well-being of the people.
The Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a series of press conferences on the theme of “China’s Decade” on the 25th, focusing on the achievements of employment and social security in the new era.
Employment priority orientation has been significantly enhanced
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has attached great importance to employment work. In recent years, it has clearly placed employment at the top of the “six stability” and “six guarantees”, strengthened the employment priority policy, and promoted the employment work to achieve historic achievements.
The scale of urban employment has expanded significantly, and a total of 130 million new urban jobs have been created in ten years; the urban and rural employment pattern has undergone historic changes. In 2021, the proportion of urban employment will reach 62.7%, and the tertiary industry has become the largest “accommodator” for employment; key groups Employment is stable. In the past ten years, the overall employment level of more than 80 million college graduates has remained stable, and the total number of migrant workers has increased to 290 million…
“my country’s employment priority strategy has been implemented in depth, the active employment policy has been continuously enriched and developed, and the employment priority orientation has been significantly enhanced.” Li Zhong, deputy minister of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said that in the past decade, the employment situation has remained generally stable, with a population of more than 1.4 billion. Large countries have achieved relatively full employment.
Helping people in need to find employment is related to the well-being of the masses and the bottom line of people’s livelihood. Li Zhong introduced that over the past ten years, 55.01 million unemployed people have been re-employed and 17.68 million people in need have been helped to find employment.
Increasing employment is the most effective and direct way to get rid of poverty, and it is the basic measure to consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation. Zhang Ying, director of the Employment Promotion Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, introduced that in the battle against poverty, the Human Resources and Social Security Department made every effort to increase the employment and income of poor laborers. The number of poor laborers has increased from 12.27 million in 2015 to 32.43 million in 2020, and more than two-thirds of the registered poor people mainly rely on migrant workers and industries to get rid of poverty. Since the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, policies have continued to intensify. In the first half of this year, 32.23 million people were lifted out of poverty.
Build the world‘s largest social security system
“Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country’s social security system has experienced the greatest reform and the fastest development.” Li Zhong said that my country has built a social security system with distinctive Chinese characteristics that is the largest and fully functional in the world.
Unify the old-age insurance system for urban and rural residents, realize the integration of the old-age insurance system for government agencies and institutions and enterprises, establish a central adjustment system for enterprise old-age insurance funds, establish an occupational annuity system, and introduce a personal pension system to fill the gap in the multi-level, multi-pillar old-age insurance system… Over the past ten years, the construction of the social security system has been continuously improved.
Social security coverage continued to expand. The number of people participating in basic pension, unemployment, and work-related injury insurance has increased from 790 million, 150 million, and 190 million in 2012 to 1.04 billion, 230 million, and 290 million in June 2022, respectively.
The level of treatment has been steadily improved. Since 2012, the basic pensions for retirees of enterprises, government agencies and institutions have been continuously adjusted, and since 2014, the national basic pension standards for basic pension insurance for urban and rural residents have been raised four times.
The management service level has been significantly improved. As of the end of June, the number of social security card holders in my country exceeded 1.36 billion. The cumulative number of visits to the national social insurance public service platform has exceeded 3.6 billion, which effectively facilitates cross-provincial and one-stop services for the masses.
The role of helping stabilize the economy and enterprises is prominent. The social insurance rate was reduced seven times, and the total level of the five social insurance rates dropped from 41% to 33.95%. In order to alleviate the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the Party Central Committee has deployed and implemented unprecedented policies such as reducing and exempting social insurance premiums for enterprises in stages, reducing the burden on enterprises by a total of 1.54 trillion yuan in 2020.
According to Qi Tao, deputy director of the Endowment Insurance Department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, from January to July this year, enterprises have reduced unemployment and work-related injury insurance premiums by more than 100 billion yuan, and issued 39.7 billion yuan in unemployment insurance to stabilize jobs. By the end of July, enterprises had deferred payment of 49.4 billion yuan of social insurance premiums for pension, unemployment and work-related injury.
Continue to promote stable and long-term employment and social security work
Employment and social security are linked to the overall economic situation and thousands of households on the other.
In the past ten years, while hundreds of millions of workers have supported their families through stable employment, their legitimate rights and interests have also been effectively safeguarded, the professional skills of workers have been continuously improved, and the construction of skilled personnel has been continuously strengthened.
The ability of the social security system to ensure sustainable development has been continuously enhanced. The accumulated balance of the three social insurance funds is 6.9 trillion yuan, the annual revenue and expenditure of the funds exceeds 13 trillion yuan, and the market-oriented investment and operation funds exceed 8 trillion yuan.
There is no end to ensuring and improving people’s livelihood, but a continuous new starting point. At present and in the future, my country is still facing the pressure of total employment and structural contradictions, and the coverage of social security needs to be further expanded. Achieving fuller and higher-quality employment and improving the multi-level social security system are still major long-term strategic tasks.
“We will insist on taking employment as the priority goal of economic and social development, promote fiscal, monetary, industrial and other policies to support stable employment, support market players to stabilize and expand jobs, promote entrepreneurship to drive employment, improve employment and social security policies, and support flexible employment. healthy development.” Li Zhong said.
Regarding the employment of key groups, Zhang Ying said that the employment of young people such as college graduates will be the top priority, and the employment service will be the starting point to promote their employment and entrepreneurship through multiple channels.
Facing the new demands brought about by the aging of the population, new urbanization and diversification of employment methods, Li Zhong said that the major reform of the social security system will continue to be promoted, the coverage of social security will be continuously expanded, and more flexible employment will be included in the coverage. At the same time, pay more attention to the safety and value preservation and appreciation of social security funds, and solidly promote a fairer and more sustainable social security system.
