Three-year action plan to boost employment for disabled workers (Part 1)

Job seekers consult an employer at a career fair for disabled people in Xi'an on China's 32nd National Disability Day. [Photo by Yuan Jingzhi from China Daily]

To achieve the goal of consolidating the achievement of poverty alleviation for people with disabilities and sharing the fruits of economic and social progress to promote prosperity for all, the General Office of the State Council approved a three-year action plan (2022-24)， based on the Employment Boosting Plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (2021-2025) and the Protection and Development Plan for the People with Disabilities During the 14th Five-Year Plan Period, to promote employment for disabled people, pledging to ramp up vocational training measures and set up better job services.

1. TASK AND OBJECTIVES

Taking the unemployed people with disabilities in the urban and rural areas who have conditions to find jobs as the main objective, the governments should better play the role in boosting employment, further implement the employment and entrepreneurship support policies for disabled people, increase the support of vocational training for disabled people, and constantly improve the quality and efficiency of employment services for them while stabilizing and providing more jobs for the disabled. From 2022 to 2024, more than 1 million new jobs should be created for disabled people in rural and urban areas, with enhanced capacity for the disabled in employment and entrepreneurship, guarantee their employment rights, promote to create a better social environment to understand, care for and support the disabled people to find jobs and start businesses.

2. KEY MEASURES

Key measures include creating jobs for the disabled in government departments, public institutions, State-owned enterprises, and private businesses.

Government agencies and public institutions should take lead in arranging employment for disabled people. Local government agencies and public institutions should establish a statistical system for the employment of people with disabilities and formulate employment promotion plans for disabled people on a proportional basis. If the proportion of disabled workers does not reach the requirement, at least one disabled worker should be employed. According to the total number of recruited staff of government agencies and public institutions, the county and township levels are urged to arrange for disabled people to work in proportion. Provincial and prefecture-level government agencies and public institutions that have already recruited disabled people should make announcements to the public under relevant regulations.

State-owned enterprises should arrange the disabled people to work. Organize to hold recruiting sessions for disabled employment by State-owned enterprises. Select a group of State-owned enterprises with a wide range of business scope and more positions to provide some jobs each year targeting people with disabilities. State-owned enterprises should take the lead in arranging proportional work positions for disabled people, and those who fail to assume their responsibilities must contribute to a fund that would benefit the disabled on time. State-owned enterprises should include the disabled people’s recruitment condition in the corporate social responsibility report.

Private businesses are important in job creation for disabled people. Private businesses launch activities to help the disabled secure a job and organize some leading platforms, e-commerce, courier services, and other new employment models connecting private businesses with disabled workers to increase recruitment annually. For people with disabilities who are employed and start businesses, they will be given cuts or exemptions for joining and value-added services, and will also be supported in publicity and promotion, preferential order dispatching, free vocational training, etc. Strengthen the cooperation between local government departments to build employment platforms for private businesses to help the disabled find jobs, reinforce the guidance and support for start-up businesses and self-employed individuals, and provide services such as contacting labor projects, carrying out employment training, and employer training. Private businesses should include the conditions of upholding and developing people with disabilities and recruitment proportion in the corporate social responsibility report or prepare special social responsibility reports.

Specialized social organizations for disabled people should assist them in employment. Give full play to the roles of special associations and social organizations specially designed for the disabled and startup pioneers, select some developed employment projects that have formed a certain market size and operated stably, and increase support to promote employment and entrepreneurship for more people with disabilities. Study the typical cases and summarize successful experiences of different types of employment for disabled people, promote projects to help the disabled, and create cultural and creative bases and related brands. Welfare foundations of the disabled should widely mobilize all the social sectors to carry out public welfare projects and activities with the theme of assisting disabled people in finding jobs.

Implement assisting and supporting activities for disabled people with employment difficulties. Local governments should establish nursing and vocational rehabilitation institutions for disabled people to support employment. Give full play to the roles of sub-districts, communities, organizations of relatives and friends of the disabled, charitable organizations, caring companies, and other sectors in promoting the development of supported recruitment. All prefecture-level disabled persons’ federations need to carry out the deployment of supported recruitment projects for disabled persons, to develop, collect and reserve recruitment projects to brand the products and services. Set up social work positions in supported institutions where conditions permit and provide special employment counselors for the disabled. All localities should include all eligible disabled persons with employment difficulties in the scope of employment assistance, and support them with specific focuses. Coordinate and make good use of existing public welfare positions, and encourage eligible disabled persons to find jobs and start businesses.

Deliver employment assistance and support activities for disabled people in rural areas. Implement policies to consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation for disabled people, and provide financial support to the qualified workshops and rural bases of employment assistance for the disabled via current funding channels under the regulations. Support the rural disabled people and their family members to engage in planting, breeding, processing, rural tourism, rural e-commerce, and rural courier service by providing services such as land transfer, industrial custody, production service, technical guidance, agricultural supplies, purchase and sale of agricultural products, financing, etc. Continue to carry out practical skills training programs, and help the disabled family members who are included in the monitoring targets for preventing the return to poverty to secure jobs and start businesses. Provide employment assistance and support for relocated disabled persons continuously. Conduct more support for employment for disabled workers in the collaboration and paired assistance programs between the eastern and western regions.

Launch the employment assistance activities for disabled college graduates. Localities should establish an information exchange mechanism for disabled college students between different departments to acquire accurate data, establish special service files for employment and provide targeted services. Reinforce the guidance to the colleges and universities where disabled students study, better works should be done for the disabled college students in terms of employment-related policies promotion, vocational skills training, positions introduction, etc., and nail down various types of employment supports and subsidies. The government agencies and public institutions should take the disabled college graduates as the key targets to recruit, as well as the State-owned enterprises and private companies. Promote equal access to public employment services for disabled college graduates in their permanent residence. Organize various online and offline recruiting services and sessions for college graduates with disabilities, and facilitate them finding jobs through employment activities such as college graduate employment promotion week.

Source：

<http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2022-04/08/content_5684090.htm>

<http://english.www.gov.cn/policies/latestreleases/202204/08/content_WS624ffebfc6d02e5335328eee.html>

Edited and translated by Guo Xinxin