Employees work on the production line of a foreign-funded electronics manufacturing company in Rongcheng, Shandong province. [Photo by LI XINJUN/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Shandong province has made unremitting efforts over the past decade to improve employment and social security.

Officials from Shandong stated during a news conference on Oct 8 that Shandong adheres to the people-centered development ideology, places a high value on employment and social security, and implements proactive employment policies.

Urban employment has continued to expand in Shandong, with more than 55 million people employed in the province and more than 1.2 million new urban jobs created annually, accounting for one-tenth of the country's total.

Employment of key groups such as college graduates, rural migrant workers, and people with employment difficulties has remained stable in Shandong, and the number of poverty-stricken workers employed each year has been kept at about 400,000.

Unemployment has remained low in the province, with the registered urban unemployment rate being kept within 4 percent, and the surveyed unemployment rate has been kept at around 5.5 percent.

The quality of employment has also been steadily improved, and wages have kept rising, which have doubled from those in 2012.

In Shandong, the quality of the labor force has improved as a whole. In 2021, there were over 14 million skilled employees, of whom 3.5 million were highly skilled, an increase of 3.2 times and 1.7 times from 2012 figures, respectively.