Shanghai's public job service has proven effective, as data from local labor authority indicates that the success rate of job placement under the government-backed service system has reached the record high of 38.6 percent.

The rate was just short of 10 percent when the system was initiated, according to Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau.

Currently, the public job service system includes 52 placement centers throughout the city, which provide information and service for free. With their help, some 276,000 of the total 714,000 job seekers who registered at the centers have successfully found a job.

In addition to the local centers, a website has been launched to help with recruitment. The site collects more than 50,000 pieces of employment information each day, covering such industries as business, management, mechanism and information technologies.

Shanghai's public job service system also organizes job-training programs and unemployment subsidies. Last year, it helped 238,000 people to get vocational training and expanded the subsidies availed by jobless youths.

Utilizing the system 347 business start-up groups have been recently launched, attracting 3,632 participants. Volunteers, organized by the city's labor authority, provide consultations to the participants, to help them start their own businesses.

(Shanghai Daily February 19, 2005)