As China’s ‘employment problems’ mount, Premier Li vows to create jobs, ward off poverty


China has vowed to keep its urban jobless rate around 5.5 per cent this year while striving to prevent those at the lowest economic rung of society from falling back into poverty, in an effort to mitigate social-stability risks.

The Chinese government wants the economy to create more than 12 million new urban jobs in 2025 while facing “more pronounced structural employment problems”, Premier Li Qiang said in his annual work report to China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, on Wednesday.

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