Premier Li Keqiang made a suggestion in the news release of the latest State Council executive meeting, by adding “for a population of more than 1.3 billion” to the end of the sentence “employment is the largest livelihood project”.

This statement underlined his deep concern about employment for all Chinese people.

The State Council meeting on April 5 released policies and measures regarding the promotion of employment and entrepreneurship for the future.

At a news conference during the annual two sessions in March, when asked what the most important achievements the government had made in the past four years, the Premier said one of them was the more than 50 million urban jobs that were created.

Premier Li reiterated this at the meeting, asking government departments to prioritize employment strategies, and carry out more proactive employment policies, while facing the grim situation this year. He also called for efforts to implement policies already in place while coming up with new measures.

The Premier stressed that as a fundamental goal for economic growth employment should be stabilized and further improved.

This year’s new employment policies have responded to what people are concerned most about, such as the inconvenience for overseas returnees to start their own businesses.

Premier Li pointed out that miscellaneous procedures for the authentication of foreign certificates have become the reason that many returning overseas students almost give up on the idea of coming back.

The meeting decided to simplify the process of authentication. Premier Li said that some of the authentication procedures can be simplified with the help of the internet.

Premier Li urged to push forward pre-employment health checkups in designated hospitals and mutual authentication system for the checkup results, to avoid repetitive procedures.

“The initial task for macroeconomic policies is to boost employment and entrepreneurship,” said the Premier. He added that major economic policies concerning finance and tax as well as banking and industries should make comprehensive appraisal of their impact on employment, with the aim to promote coordinative development of economic growth and employment.

To support the implementation of employment and entrepreneurship policies on key groups, Premier Li required that laid-off workers should be treated properly as China cuts overcapacity, and he encouraged new graduates to embrace all job opportunities. He also urged related government departments to enhance the fairness of the employment system for urban and rural workers and further implement veteran resettling policies.

Premier Li stressed that the work to ensure employment should be regarded as a long-term task instead of a temporary issue since its results will not be seen immediately but will have a long-term impact.

Facing an employment peak, China needs a stable employment rate to overcome the middle income trap and realize the growth of individual income and social wealth, Premier Li stated.