Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated the government's determination to curb urban unemployment Saturday by announcing 10.9 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) allocation to boost its ambitious reemployment program for laid-off workers this year.

The amount is 2.6 billion yuan (313 million US dollars) more than last year, Wen said in the government work report to the third annual session of the 10th National People's Congress that opened here Saturday.

The government plans to include for the first time workers laid-off from collectively owned businesses into its reemployment program in 2005, he said.

The program used to target only workers laid off from state firms. In 2004, it helped 5.1 million laid-off workers find new jobs, including 1.4 million people who are aged above 40 and are considered the least advantaged group on the job market.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has vowed to help another 5 million laid-off workers find jobs this year.

"We will continue to follow a proactive employment policy...conscientiously implement all policies and measures to support reemployment," said Wen, adding that local budgets will also increase reemployment allocations.

The government's active pro-employment policy, along with the sound economic performance, has, for the first time, brought down the country's urban unemployment rate in 2004.

Last year, China's registered urban jobless rate stood at 4.2 percent, down 0.1 percent from 2003, according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. Prior to the hard-won 0.1 percent drop, the curve had been climbing all along, from 2.9 percent in 1995 to 4.3 percent in 2003.

Yang Tuan, deputy director of the social policy research center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the drop in unemployment rate is also a result of the successful restructuring of many state firms.

"The market-oriented reforms of state-owned enterprises have left a large number of laid-offs beginning in 1996, posing an increasing pressure over employment. Currently, most SOEs have finished reforms and are laying off fewer workers," Yang said.

But still, many experts have warned the world's most populous nation is still under pressure to create enough jobs for its huge workforce that consists of urban residents as well as the increasing number of surplus laborers from rural areas. A foreseeable population growth by eight to 10 million people in each of the following 20 years and the increasing number of entrants into the job market are feared to toughen the situation.

"We should view last year's drop in the jobless rate not just as a 'turning point,' but more a temporary phenomenon benefiting from the rapid economic progress," said Yang Yiyong, deputy secretary-general of the China Labor Society.

National Bureau of Statistics Director Li Deshui also considered it difficult to conclude that China's unemployment rate will continue to drop due to numerous uncertain factors, such as the slowdown of economic development, improvement of technology and population growth.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said the government targets an 8-percent GDP growth this year, gearing down its economy from the 9.5 percent growth rate registered in 2004.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has locked the registered urban unemployment rate for 2005 within 4.6 percent, a slight fall from the original 2004 goal of 4.7 percent.

China has taken active policies to promote employment since 2002. Packed with a series of preferential measures in taxes and loans, the policy encourages businesses to hire laid-off workers and others less competitive job-hunters. The measures also help the jobless to start businesses of their own, say sources with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

The governments at various levels also purchase the community services to offer more jobs and to thrive flexible employment with no fixed work schedules. Statistics show there are more than 100 million Chinese engaged in flexible jobs now, about 40 percent of the total urban employed population.

Last year, central China's Henan Province helped 583,600 laid-off workers, a record high, to take up new occupations, at least 40 percent of whom became self-employed, according to sources with the provincial bureau of labor and social security.

Jilin Province in the northeastern rustbelt plans to raise 80 million yuan (9.6 million US dollars) this year to provide vocational training and employment consulting services to laid-off workers from state firms. In his government work report to the provincial people's congress, Governor Wang Min said the province aims to create 500,000 urban jobs this year and help at least 300,000 laid-off workers become employed again.

Prior to the ongoing annual parliament session, some NPC deputies proposed that China should draft a law to guard job-hunters against varied forms of employment discrimination to better protect the legitimate rights of all its work-age population.

"Unreasonable bias against women and people with less preferable education background is a big problem related to social justice," said Wang Yuan'an, a deputy from Tai'an City in east China's Shandong Province.

Wang, who was a migrant rural worker, is now president of a school providing training on computer skills. He cited a few examples of people facing groundless difficulties in hunting for jobs due to their looks, height and age barriers set by employers during an interview with Xinhua on Thursday.

In central China's Hunan Province, 25-year-old Fan Siping failed with his application to local civil service as he is 0.005 meters shorter than the required height.

"A law on fair employment is in an urgent need in China," said Wang, adding that he would very much like to submit a proposal in this regard to the NPC session.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2005)