Liaoning, better known as China's traditional industrial base, is a pilot province for the ongoing national social security system reform because of its large number of laid-off workers from State-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Liaoning Provincial Labor and Social Security Department official Xu Xiaoqing said 1.8 million local people were looking for employment this year.

Up to 500,000 of them were retrenched SOE employees with minimal skills.

But provincial statistics show an estimated 700,000 new jobs are expected to be created this year - and almost 42 per cent of the target has been achieved during the first four months of 2002.

Fang Xiaolin, director of the Liaoning Provincial Statistics Bureau, said in a report last week that compared with industry and agriculture, the service sector had witnessed the highest growth rate for the first half of the year.

He said the sector had generated added value of 91.2 billion yuan (US$11.1 billion), which is a rise of 12.3 percent compared with the same time last year.

Fang said the service sector had absorbed 190,000 people in the first four months of the year, accounting for 65 percent of the total jobs newly added during the period.

Liaoning Party secretary Wen Shizhen told a provincial work meeting last week that speeding up the economy was key to creating more employment and redeployment opportunities.

Liaoning's gross domestic product has already witnessed a 9.2 percent increase in the first six months of this year.

"Community service is an important channel for creating jobs and a very helpful means to realize the target of the province's employment and reemployment project," Wen said.

(China Daily August 3, 2002)