DAI Zhixin and ZHANG Bowen: Improving the Policy Toolbox for Targeted and Stable Employment

Employment is the cornerstone of people’s livelihood. It connects the macroeconomy on one end and the well-being of households on the other. Since the beginning of 2024, local governments and relevant departments have actively implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee. Through policies such as job retention subsidies, employment incentives, and job expansion subsidies, sustained efforts have been made to support employment, resulting in a generally stable employment situation with steady progress.

Although the current policy toolbox is well-equipped, structural contradictions, such as the coexistence of labor shortages and employment difficulties remain prominent. Going forward, it is essential to fully prepare contingency plans, continuously improve the policy toolbox, and introduce incremental reserve policies in a timely manner.

Efforts should be made to vigorously promote service consumption, establish re-lending mechanisms for service consumption and senior care, expand the supply of new types of jobs, and integrate these efforts with vocational training, information guidance, and the construction of employment service systems. These measures can help guide workers to shift their employment mindset and reduce the cost of career transitions.

It is also crucial to break businesses’ inertia in thinking, strengthen financial support and the supply of policy-based financial tools, and dynamically monitor and track key enterprises to accurately assess labor shortages.

Forward-looking incremental reserve policies should be introduced in a timely manner to clarify policy direction, improve phased employment subsidies, effectively anchor market expectations, alleviate the impact of emotional fluctuations, and boost employer confidence in hiring.

By implementing the above policy incentives, the wait-and-see attitude in the labor market can be reduced, driving structural optimization and high-quality development in employment.

(The above views are excerpted and translated from an article by DAI Zhixin, Researcher at the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China, and ZHANG Bowen, Researcher at the Behavioral and Experimental Taxation Research Center of Renmin University of China, published in Economic Daily titled “Improving the Policy Toolbox for Targeted and Stable Employment”.)

Original article link: http://paper.ce.cn/pc/content/202505/02/content_313142.html

Translator: ZHANG Yuqing

Editor: ZHANG Jingjing