According to the latest data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released on Dec 12, from January to November, 12.49 million jobs were created in China’s urban areas.

It has met the target of creating 10 million new jobs this year that Premier Li Keqiang promised at the two sessions.

Among the new jobs, 5.11 million went to urban residents who lost their jobs, 2.2 percent higher than the targeted number.

In fact, it is the third consecutive year that over 12 million jobs were created in China since 2014.

Employment is the focus of this administration, and one of the top concerns of the Premier, who stressed the significance of employment to China’s development in all his government work reports since taking office.

“Employment is the key to people’s welfare. The government should help at least one member of unemployed families get a job,” he said in the Government Work Report in 2014. “I have visited some unemployed families before. If no one in a family has a job, the family will be hopeless,” he further explained at a news conference that year.

To stimulate job creation, the government has been cutting administrative procedures, launching business registration reform and calling for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Thanks to these measures, many new businesses are being started — over 40,000 market entities were born every day in China — creating tons of jobs.

“If we change the focus from GDP growth to employment and people’s welfare, we will not be too worried about China’s investment and economic downturn,” said the Chinese edition of Financial Times on July 20.