China’s government is promising “jobs for the boys” after ordering state-owned enterprises to employ some of the 300,000 soldiers who are being laid off as part of an ambitious modernisation of the world’s biggest army. As part of the recruitment push, Beijing will assess annually whether SOEs are meeting an existing requirement to reserve 5 percent of their vacancies for those who have left the People’s Liberation Army, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. The move comes after senior PLA officers raised concerns that the lay-offs, which were announced by President Xi Jinping during a high-profile military parade in September, could provoke social instability. Cutting 300,000 of the PLA’s 2.3m soldiers is one element in a reform package designed to turn it from a mass mobilisation, mostly land-based army into a more professional military, with separate commands for naval, air and strategic rocket forces.