China Unveils 15th Five-Year Plan for Employment and Social Security

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released a development plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) on July 9, 2026. The strategy establishes seven major goals and 18 quantifiable indicators designed to stabilize the labor market and enhance social security infrastructure.

Central to the plan is the goal of helping 25 million unemployed urban workers find jobs and assisting 6.5 million people facing employment difficulties. The government aims to keep the surveyed urban jobless rate at or below 5.5 percent. To support these targets, the plan provides for over 50 million subsidized vocational training opportunities, including 17.5 million for rural migrant workers, and the annual recruitment of 35,000 postdoctoral researchers.

Social security targets include maintaining basic pension insurance coverage above 95 percent and expanding electronic social security card access to 90 percent of the population by 2030. The ministry intends to grow enterprise and occupational annuity funds to over 9 trillion yuan. Additionally, the framework incorporates artificial intelligence to empower human resources development and introduces an AI employment-creation plan to adapt to emerging technologies.