Against the backdrop of a complex and volatile global economy, China has always placed the protection of workers' rights and interests at the forefront of economic and social development. In recent years, China has built a multi-level, all-round labor rights protection system by improving legislation, strengthening supervision, innovating services, and deepening international cooperation. In 2025, China will launch a number of new policies in the field of labor protection, demonstrating the government's high attention to the welfare of workers and contributing Chinese experience to global labor governance.
Policy innovation: building a multi-level protection system
In April 2025, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other three departments jointly issued the "Notice on the Continuation of the Implementation of Unemployment Insurance Policies and Measures to Stabilize and Benefit the People", which will extend the policy of stabilizing employment and returning funds to the end of 2025, with the highest return rate for small and medium-sized enterprises reaching 60%. This policy has returned more than 80 billion yuan to more than 10 million enterprises across the country, stabilizing more than 120 million jobs. At the same time, the skill improvement subsidy policy has been further relaxed. Insured workers can enjoy one subsidy per year, and those who obtain urgently needed and scarce professional certificates will have two additional subsidy opportunities. In 2024, the total number of subsidies distributed nationwide will benefit more than 5 million people.
For the migrant worker group, the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Service and Protection of Migrant Workers" puts forward 14 measures, including optimizing entrepreneurship support policies, expanding the coverage of social security for urban workers, and promoting equal education for migrant children. Data show that the total number of migrant workers will reach 298 million in 2023, of which 177 million will go out to work. 97% of cities with a permanent population of less than 3 million in urban areas have completely lifted restrictions on settlement, and the proportion of migrant workers' children attending public schools has reached 96.7%.
In the field of new employment forms, China has taken the lead in carrying out a pilot program for occupational injury protection, covering more than 8.866 million workers in industries such as food delivery and online car-hailing. Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places have adopted the "billing by order" and "quick recognition and quick payment" mechanisms to achieve the settlement of small medical expenses within 5 working days, and "special handling of major accidents", effectively filling the institutional gaps. Li Changhui, director of the Beijing Office of the International Labor Organization, commented that China's experience in protecting platform economy workers "provides an important reference for the world".
Practical results: from policy texts to people's livelihood and well-being
The "Eradicate Wage Arrears Action" has achieved remarkable results. From November 2024 to before the Spring Festival in 2025, the country launched a winter action to govern wage arrears. Through online investigation, on-site inspections, and priority repayment of government projects, a total of 43.5 billion yuan in wages were recovered for 2.8 million migrant workers. The special account and real-name management of migrant workers' wages have been fully implemented in the field of engineering construction, and the number of wage arrears cases has decreased by 27% year-on-year.
"Vocational skills training" empowers employment quality. In 2024, more than 15 million subsidized vocational skills training will be carried out nationwide, of which migrant workers account for 62%. Liaoning Province has trained highly skilled talents for express delivery, logistics and other industries through the "Xingliao Future Craftsmen" training base, and the employment rate after training has increased to 92%. Guangxi's "Spring Warmth for Migrant Workers" campaign provides "point-to-point" special car service, helping more than 1.2 million migrant workers return to work around the Spring Festival in 2025, and the issuance of entrepreneurial guarantee loans has increased by 35% year-on-year.
The "social security network" is getting denser and denser. As of March 2025, the number of people participating in basic pension insurance nationwide will reach 1.05 billion, and the number of people participating in work-related injury insurance will exceed 300 million. Fujian Province has included new forms of workers in work-related injury insurance, and the number of participants exceeded 10 million in February 2025. Guangdong, Jiangsu and other places have piloted the relaxation of household registration restrictions on flexible employment personnel, helping more than 2 million migrant workers to participate in employee medical insurance as individuals.
International responsibility: building a new global labor governance ecosystem
China actively participates in the formulation of international labor standards and has approved 28 international labor conventions, including 7 core conventions.Under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, China is promoting international mutual recognition of labor standards:
1. China has carried out vocational skills training cooperation with countries along the route, built 66 overseas skills dream training bases, and trained 32,000 technical talents for countries along the route;
2. Participated in the formulation of the "Cross-border E-commerce Labor Standards Convention" to fill the gap in international rules in the field of digital economy;
3. In 2024, more than 50,000 technical workers will be trained for Southeast Asian and African countries, and the "Chinese-style" migrant worker wage guarantee system will be promoted in Laos, Cambodia and other countries, benefiting more than 500,000 local workers.
Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labor Organization, pointed out that China's experience in "skills development, social protection and other fields is of great reference significance to developing countries."
Faced with the challenges of digital transformation, China cooperated with the International Labor Organization to formulate standards for the protection of platform economy workers and promote the establishment of a global agenda for "decent work in the digital age". In 2025, China will host the International Labor Organization's Global Youth Employment Forum to share youth career development and skills training experiences.
China will continue to deepen the reform of labor rights protection, focusing on promoting three tasks: first, expand the scope of the pilot program of occupational injury protection, with the target of covering more than 12 million people by 2025; second, implement the quality improvement action of the urbanization of migrant workers in counties, and achieve the settlement of 100 million migrant workers in cities by the end of 2025; third, improve the consultation mechanism for the rights and interests of workers in new business forms, and promote collective consultation between platform companies and trade unions.
As the International Labor Organization's "World Employment Situation Report 2025" said, China's practice in "addressing labor market inequality and promoting green transformation employment" has provided the world with a "replicable solution". China will continue to focus on institutional innovation and improvement of people's livelihood, and contribute Chinese wisdom to building a more fair and sustainable global labor governance system.
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