(Yicai Global) May 13 -- As a record number of college students prepare to graduate in China this summer, the country’s cabinet has said that it will help smaller businesses to hire more graduates by subsidizing social insurance payments, granting tax reductions and other preferential policies.

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that hire new graduates and sign labor contacts of over one year with them will qualify for employer benefits, the State Council said in an announcement on its website. Those that meet a certain quota of new graduate hires will also be eligible for bail-out funds and discounts on loans for technological upgrades.

Some 10.7 million college students are preparing to graduate this year, the first time that the number has topped 10 million, according to the Ministry of Education.

The government will help graduates to start their own businesses by giving them one-time entrepreneurial grants, loans, discounts and tax cuts. And those graduates that remain unemployed within two years of graduating and who have managed to find part-time or temporary positions can apply for social insurance subsidies.

The government is also steadily promoting the healthy development of the platform economy, boosting employment and stepping up hiring at state-owned enterprises, it said.

Editor: Kim Taylor