As of the end of April, 13,500 more urban residents had found employment in Baotou city in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region in the year to date, with 32.3 percent of the city’s annual job placement target achieved, according to statistics released by the city’s employment service bureau.

A total of 5,129 people achieved re-employment during the first four months of 2020, officials said, meaning that 73.3 percent of the annual goal was reached.

A total of 2,096 people with chronic difficulties in finding employment were hired during the four-month period, 26.2 percent of Baotou’s annual target.

Officials said that the registered unemployment rate in urban areas stood at 3.9 percent.

To boost employment, Baotou has rolled out a series of measures, while fully carrying out implementation of policies such as unemployment insurance, post-reduction compensation and employment and entrepreneurship subsidies.

The city has been supporting the return to work and production of companies as the novel coronavirus outbreak reduces and has been acting to ensure that peasants and herdsmen also return to work.

In succession, 28 policy documents for employment and entrepreneurship were issued during the epidemic period to maintain the overall stability of the employment situation in the city.

Baotou has strengthened guarantees for labor resumption of enterprises, established a 24-hour labor scheduling mechanism for key businesses and undertaken multiple measures to meet the needs of companies.

As of the end of April, 20 key enterprises in the city had all resumed work. The resumption rate of enterprises in other fields was 98.5 percent and 3,339 people were employed at the resumed enterprises.

Officials said that, in addition, Baotou has been promoting its "Entrepreneurship Baotou" three-year action plan and promoting the upgrade of management services for incubation bases in the city’s entrepreneurship parks.

As of the end of April, a total of 70.44 million yuan ($9.89 million) of entrepreneurial guaranteed loans were issued.

A total of 2,024 people attended entrepreneurship training sessions launched by the city and 171 people successfully started their own businesses after receiving the training, officials said.