Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang has urged citizens to create more jobs and protect the rights and interests of staff with better employee benefits and wages. His call to action came last month when he toured China's Heilongjiang Province from in the north.

He told local officials that employment and labour rights protection have a direct bearing on people's well being and social stability. Making efforts to create jobs, build career structures and training people minimises unemployment he said. This needs to come from strong benefits administration and benefits communication from local governments and companies working in the regions.

He pointed out that the labour contract law, which came into being on January 1 this year was meant to be a piece of pro-employee legislation. He said that local governments should ensure that they were paying contracts on time. He added that the major task now was to reform China's creaking old-age pension system. This should include everyone living in the cities as soon as possible, while developing a system that covers migrant workers and people living in the countryside.