The Shenzhen municipal government will keep the urban registered unemployment rate below 3 percent this year, a senior labor official said yesterday.

Guan Lingen, director general of the Shenzhen Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau, vowed to take measures to "increase both the quantity and quality of jobs."

The low unemployment rate is part of the indices cited by the municipal government earlier this month for measuring residents' well-being.

The municipal government will help 30,000 unemployed people land jobs in the year 2007 by encouraging companies to hire the registered unemployed, or helping the unemployed start their own businesses, said Guan.

Shenzhen has been keeping its urban registered unemployment rate under 3 percent for years, but with the population expanding, the municipal government is under pressure to maintain the low unemployment rate.

Guan also vowed to find at least one job for each family that does not have a single employed member, and get rid of "zero-job" families this year.

Ninety-five percent of hukou holders (permanent residents) will be included in the government-run social security scheme that covers pension, compensation for work-related injury, medical costs and unemployment benefits by the end of the year, said Guan.

By the end of the year, the number of migrant workers covered by the government-run medical insurance scheme should rise by 19 percent to 4 million, according to Guan.

Guan also vowed to provide professional training to 2.73 million people and build 100 large training bases this year.

(Shenzhen Daily January 16, 2007)