A series of job fairs, part of a large-scale campaign to promote private sector employment, opened today around Beijing.

Co-organized by the Beijing Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau, Beijing Federation for Trade Unions and Beijing Federation for Industry and Commerce, the move is to smoothen the way for job hunters to find suitable positions in the fast growing private business sector.

About 219 private enterprises from manufacturing, high-tech, trade and commerce and real estate industries are offering thousands of vacancies.

"The city's private enterprises have showed a strong and dynamic development momentum, making them a dominant employment channel," said Meng Xiancang, division chief of the employment office with the Beijing Labor and Social Security Bureau.

All the job fairs taking place concurrently around the city are advertising over 20,000 posts by some 600 enterprises, Meng added.

Statistics show that private enterprises employ about 66 percent of the city's total working population, standing at over 3.28 million.

At the end of last year, there were 752,000 registered private enterprises and sole proprietorships in Beijing, up 20 percent and 18 percent respectively over the previous year.

Meng said the job fair is also targeting college graduates and unemployed skilled workers. In May, Beijing's registered unemployment rate was 1.67 percent, slightly higher than that in the past 10 years, which recorded a steady 1.5 percent.

"People receiving the minimum living subsidy such as disabled persons and farmer-turned-residents, have been recently brought into the unemployment category," Meng said.

(China Daily June 6, 2005)