Lydia Chen/ Shanghai Daily news

Shanghai has created 443,000 new jobs by the end of June this year, fulfilling 88.6 percent of the city’s yearly target of 500,000 positions.

More than 20,000 people so far have found jobs through a Full Employment Community program in 23 neighborhoods in Pudong New Area this year, the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau announced yesterday.

The program, the first of its kind in Shanghai, grants that at least one person in each household is employed. Meanwhile, those between the ages of 40 and 50, who usually find it hard to get jobs, have been offered training programs, job opportunities as well as applications for insurance and subsidies, Jiefang Daily reported today.

The bureau launched a work loan policy in April to encourage self employment, a way to relieve unemployment pressure.

The bureau said it would offer loan guarantees of up to 500,000 yuan (US$66,050) to people starting their own businesses. The loan would be interest-free if paid back in time, the report said.

In the city’s suburbs, more than 5,000 newly-established labor organizations have created 15,000 jobs in the first half of this year, the report said.

The bureau also set up an employment promotion coalition with companies. The eyeglasses and watch repairer Sanlian Group is among the participants aiming to provide more jobs and intern opportunities for unemployed youth.

More than 14,000 young people, mostly vocational graduates, have registered to take internships with these companies, an increase of 162 percent from last year. Sixty percent of these people were hired after internships, the report said.

The government said in March that it planned to keep the registered unemployment rate below 4.5 percent this year,

But the employment situation looks grim as more than 143,000 students will graduate from colleges and universities in the city this year, an 11 percent increase from last year, which should add to job market pressure.