Mayor of Shanghai Han Zheng Wednesday pledged to create 400,000 jobs for the local people this year in an effort to maintain an unemployment rate of less than 5 percent.

Han said at a local meeting on employment the government will continue to help those who are facing difficulty finding employment due to special personal circumstances.

This year, the city government will again subsidize the creation of 100,000 public-sector positions for such people and another 100,000 job opportunities in the field of public facility maintenance.

The government will also make greater efforts to support small businesses and train more personnel with multiple professional skills, with the aim to increase the number of high-level technicians to 15 percent of the labor force by 2005, from the current 6 percent, the mayor said.