OREANDA-NEWS. January 28, 2013.  Urban and rural employment continued to remain stable in Anhui province in 2012, with 658,000 new jobs created and the urban registered unemployment rate reaching 3.68 percent, below the annual target of 4.6 percent, according to the provincial department of human resources and social security.

The province aims to add 600,000 new jobs and cap the urban unemployment rate at 4.5 percent for 2013.

Such stable job situation was largely due to a slew of measures from local authorities. Not only did the department produce documents to help college graduates who had difficulty finding a job, it also unveiled policies to offer support to employers who tried to provide stable jobs.

The employment regulator deferred and reduced the payment of roughly 3.7 billion yuan in premium, granted subsidies of 1.4 billion yuan and stabilize up to 1.18 million positions last year.

Meanwhile, it improved job-related services constantly, launching seven province-wide campaigns to increase employment like "monthlong assistance for job hunters" , pioneering weeklong recruitment exclusively for veterans and Tibetans, and hosting 2,700 large job fairs.

As a result, 249,500 jobless residents were reemployed and 89,600 experiencing employment difficulty found jobs. The overall employment rate for college graduates stood at 95.3 percent.

The province also made progress in stimulating and expanding employment by encouraging business startups. Up to 5.1 billion-yuan small guaranteed loans were offered to startups. Besides, an incentive program was carried out to encourage fresh graduates from Beijing-based universities who were born in Anhui province to start businesses back in their hometown. Hefei, Wuhu, Huaibei and Ma'anshan were recognized as national advanced cities in business starting.