China's State Council, or the cabinet, issued a notice Tuesday that urged governments at all levels to make every possible effort to expand employment.
The notice said that the deepening global financial crisis makes it more difficult to offer jobs for new labor force and unemployment risks continue to increase. In response, governments should adopt a more vigorous employment policy to maintain stable employment and social order.
Governments at all levels should give priority to employment of enterprise staff, college graduates, laid-off and migrant workers and demobilized officers.
They should take active measures to reduce employment burdens on enterprises and supervise their layoff activities to protect workers' legal rights.
If an enterprise's job-cutting plan involves more than 20 workers or more than 10 percent of the entire staff, the company should file a report to the local trade union or notify all staff 30 days before the layoff.
Tax authorities should offer exemptions, including turnover tax and individual income tax, to laid-off workers who started their own business and extend the exemption approval deadline to the end of 2009.
Enterprises that sign one-year or above contracts with laid-off workers and pay their social insurance fees will also be exempted from several taxes with the approval deadline also extended to the end of 2009.
Workers who fail to find employment by end of 2009 will be able to continue claiming social security subsidies for a maximum of one year.
The notice also required governments to improve employment services such as professional training, adding that new employment and unemployment rates would be key factors in assessing government success.
(Xinhua News Agency February 11, 2009)