To ease a growing urban labor surplus, northeast China's Jilin Province will have to create at least half a million new jobs next year.

Facing a grim situation, the provincial government is planning to do what it can to achieve that goal. Despite the lofty target, the registered urban unemployment rate is expected to rise to 5.5 percent by the end of next year from this year's 4.7 percent.

The central government has decided to keep its registered urban unemployment rate nationwide for next year under control at not higher than 4.6 percent.

According to the Jilin Provincial Labor and Social Security Bureau, the government is giving priority to fostering labor-intensive projects in five major industries: automobile, petrochemical industry, grain processing, bio-pharmaceuticals and photoelectronics.

And meanwhile, offering favorable policies with regard to re-employing laid-off workers at small and medium-sized labor-intensive enterprises should make an impact. Officials are also encouraging people to search for jobs on their own or set up their own tiny businesses.

To date, Jilin Province has developed 500,000 urban employment posts and the registered unemployment rate in cities and towns is 4.7 percent. Laid-off people's re-employment numbers about 320,000.

"However, unemployment conditions are still looking blue since the surplus of workers will hit 1 million next year," said Song Yu'an, director of the Social Research and Development Center at Jilin University.

"The pressure from the urban laid-offs and newly increased workforce hasn't slackened off," he told China Daily.

Around 1 million urban workers need re-employment every year in Jilin Province, but in fact vacancies only reach 400,000, leaving a gap of 600,000.

In addition, the quality of the labor force and the demand for jobs are also incompatible.

Both coal industry and forestry sector have more than 100 years history, but are reducing jobs constantly. So, such industries face great difficulties in development.

According to a survey released by the Jilin Provincial Labor and Social Security Bureau, there are 340 difficult enterprises in Jilin Province which face exhausted industrial resources, such as coal and textile industries.

(China Daily December 20, 2004)