China will implement a series of measures to maintain a stable employment rate this year, amid its grappling with the impact of a slowing economy due to the damaging trade dispute with U.S., its largest trading partner. Sources have said it plans to set a lower potential output target of 6 to 6.5% in 2019, as compared with around 6.5% in 2018. Additionally, China's urban unemployment rate (counting frictional and structural unemployment) was 3.8% by the end of 2018, , however, “For 2019, China still faces large employment pressure, with more than 15 million newly-added job-seekers in urban areas, including a record number of 8.34 million college graduates expected," the human resources ministry official added. This could very possibly lead to underemployment, where workers hold jobs that don’t fully utilize their skills or hold part-time positions when they wish to hold full-time ones. College graduates, migrant rural workers and veterans should be given targeted assistance in finding jobs, the official said, adding that more skills training channels should be opened for the unemployed to prevent discouraged workers.