Shanghai adds 622,000 new urban jobs in 2024

Shanghai added 622,000 new urban jobs over the past year, reflecting an overall stable employment situation, Yang Jiaying, director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, said at a news conference on Friday.

"When employment is stable, people's incomes and living standards are secured, providing a solid foundation for economic and social development," she said.

To maintain the momentum, Shanghai will continue temporarily reducing unemployment insurance rates and optimizing policies to stabilize and expand job opportunities and employment subsidies. The city has set a target of adding over 600,000 new urban jobs in 2025.

A key focus will be on industries facing high public demand through intensified vocational skills training reforms. Innovative policies regarding talent cultivation, utilization, evaluation and incentives will also be introduced.

With an estimated record of 246,000 university graduates in Shanghai entering job market this year, the city plans to expand job opportunities, establish service platforms and introduce supportive policies to assist graduates in finding suitable employment, said Yang.

For disadvantaged job seekers, a comprehensive policy tool kit will be utilized, including creating more high-quality and efficient temporary job markets to better safeguard labor rights, building on the existing venues.

As industries evolve, the demand for skilled talents in emerging sectors is becoming increasingly urgent. Shanghai is promoting vocational skills training and raising competency levels to resolve the structural employment imbalance between job vacancies and the available workforce, Yang said.

Over 200,000 new highly skilled personnel will be cultivated during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), raising their proportion among Shanghai's 4 million skilled workers to 35 percent.

Establishing integrated training platforms oriented toward market demands and employment needs is a priority that will bridge enterprises seeking skilled talents and workers seeking training.

In addition, a catalog of 100 in-demand occupations and 33 new skills training programs has been released to enhance skills proficiency. Policy incentives will raise training subsidies by 30 percent for the city's three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence, as well as 17 key occupations essential for urban operations, encouraging more people to develop specialized skills.

Promoting income growth is also a priority, said Yang, noting that Shanghai has published skilled workforce wage levels annually for eight consecutive years.