BEIJING — China will roll out a series of measures to maintain stable employment in 2019, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS).

China will reduce enterprises’ burden to ensure employment, officials with the MHRSS told a joint media interview, noting that research on plans for cutting enterprises’ social insurance premium rate will be accelerated.

“Enterprises with fewer or zero layoffs can take half of the previous year’s unemployment insurance premium back,” a senior official said.

Stabilizing employment will be a priority of government work this year, according to a tone-setting central economic work conference in last December.

“For 2019, China still faces large employment pressure, with more than 15 million newly-added job-seekers in urban areas, including a record number of 8.34 million college graduates, expected,” said the official.

Targeted job projects and plans should be applied to assist college graduates, migrant rural workers and veterans in finding jobs, according to the official.

The MHRSS also said more channels should be opened to offer various skills training for the unemployed, and the salary payment of migrant rural workers should be guaranteed, the official added.

Last year, the country saw a stable job market with 13.61 million newly-created jobs in urban areas, rising by 100,000 from the previous year. Newly-added urban jobs have surpassed 13 million for six consecutive years.

The urban unemployment was at 3.8 percent by the end of 2018.