BEIJING, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Members of the public are invited to fill in an employment questionnaire and assist the government departments with the efforts to provide good service to job seekers.

The survey, launched by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, is open to the public from Feb. 3 to 20. It is available at the news aggregating APP of the State Council, China's Cabinet, starting Friday.

Respondents can access the questionnaire by scanning a QR code on the screen of their cell phones or logging onto the website of the ministry.

The purpose of the 31-query survey, is to "gain a better understanding of the employment situations after the Spring Festival holiday," which will end on Feb. 10, and to "provide better services to job-seekers."

Last year, the ministry also launched a public survey on employers and job-seekers to find out employment needs after the Spring Festival.

As Chinese migrant workers tend to look for new job opportunities after celebrating the holiday with their families, the government, which has been adopting a job-first strategy in macroeconomic regulation, always takes efforts to boost employment during this season.

Last year in Shenzhen, for instance, more than 80 percent of local companies hired more new workers since the Spring Festival holiday than they did in 2017.

This year, the Chinese government has vowed to put stable employment in a more prominent position and continue to prioritize creating jobs and implementing a more proactive employment policy.

Companies without or with few layoffs can get a 50-percent refund of the unemployment insurance premiums they paid in the past year. More government-subsidized training will be conducted to equip the jobless with vocational skills, while employment services and support policies will be given to laid-off workers.

Before this year's Spring Festival, the Chinese Lunar New Year which fell on Feb. 5, the Ministry of Finance, State Taxation Administration and other governmental departments jointly decided to grant a three-year-long tax benefit to inspire self-employment and support small companies to hire more people in need.

Under the decision, people in need who start a business can have 12,000 yuan (about 1,790 U.S. dollars) deducted from their families' annual share of taxes over three years.

The preferential treatment will target those registered as needy and jobless for more than half a year, on subsistence allowances, recent graduates from higher educational institutions or the self-employed veterans.

Companies who have hired the needy and paid social insurances for them can also enjoy tax deductions to the tune of 6,000 yuan per person annually for three years.

Local governments at provincial levels can lift tax relief according to local conditions.

China's job market continued stable development in 2018 thanks to government efforts to stabilize employment and steady economic growth.

Some 13.61 million new jobs were created last year, up 100,000 from 2017. The registered unemployment rate, at 3.8 percent, fell to a low level in recent years, while the surveyed rate came in at 4.9 percent, down from 5 percent in 2017, statistics from the ministry showed.