North China's Shanxi province has launched more initiatives to employ people in need, according to local officials.

The Shanxi Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development introduced and explained the newly launched measures at a press conference in provincial capital Taiyuan on June 23.

The measures will promote the employment of people in need in poor areas and help migrant workers back to their hometowns to get employed. 

These involve eight fields -- including strengthening vocational skills training, increasing incomes from farming, promoting local employment, increasing the output of organized labor services, developing public service positions and encouraging entrepreneurship.

For example, Shanxi will focus on supporting poor laborers, relocated laborers and help send migrant workers back to their hometowns to participate in free vocational skills training and support farmer vocational training.

Entrepreneurship subsidies will be given to those who start small and micro-sized enterprises for the first time or are self-employed. 

Self-employed people each can apply for a business guarantee loan of up to 300,000 yuan ($42,481) and enjoy a discount on the interest payable. Each of small and micro-sized enterprises can apply for a guaranteed loan of up to 3 million yuan, according to their number of employees. 

Officials said these measures aim to promote the employment of 1.59 million registered poor laborers in Shanxi, as well as help migrant workers returning to their hometowns as well as 124,000 laborers at risk of returning to poverty, and to ensure that the number of employees and their incomes are not reduced. 

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