The first large-scale campaign to promote employment among private enterprises opens today in Beijing.

Co-organized by the Beijing Municipal Labour and Social Security Bureau, Beijing Federation for Trade Unions and Beijing Federation for Industry and Commerce, the move is to smooth the way for job hunters to find a position in the fast growing private business sector.

About 219 private enterprises, covering manufacturing, high-tech industry, trade and commerce and real estate fields, are offering thousands of vacancies.

"The city's private enterprises have showed a strong and dynamic development momentum, proving to be a dominant employment channel," said Meng Xiancang, division chief of the employment office with the Beijing Labour and Social Security Bureau.

Statistics show that private enterprises employ about 66 per cent of the city's total working population, standing at over 3.28 million.

By the end of last year, there were 752,000 registered private enterprises and self-employed business in Beijing, up 20 per cent and 18 per cent respectively over the previous year.

Meng said the job fair is also available for college graduates and the skilled workers. Beijing's registered unemployment rate is 1.67 per cent by May, slightly higher than that in the past 10 years, which recorded a steady 1.5 per cent.

"People receiving the minimum living subsidy such as disabled persons and farmer-turned-residents, have been recently brought into the unemployment category," Meng said.

All districts in Beijing are holding similar job fairs simultaneously, supplying over 20,000 posts by some 600 enterprises, Meng added.

Related employment services, including the legal support and job consultant should be attached to the job fair, officials said.

Source: China Daily