URUMQI, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has taken a series of supporting measures to stabilize employment, local authorities said.

It created a total of 179,800 new urban jobs from Jan. 23 to the end of April, according to the information office of the regional people's government.

As the COVID-19 epidemic wanes, the autonomous region supports the comprehensive resumption of operations in industries such as accommodation, catering, trade, logistics and cultural tourism, the office said. It has helped small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and individual businesses tide over difficulties by increasing fiscal and tax policy support.

By the end of April, 99.38 percent of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and 88.01 percent of self-employed businesses in Xinjiang had resumed work and production. Their financial burden was eased by 17.45 billion yuan (about 2.45 billion U.S. dollars).

Xinjiang will give priority to the employment of college graduates and urban and rural workers this year, providing them with opportunities to learn skills and giving them employment platforms and information channels, according to the regional department of human resources and social security. Enditem