The Nanyang Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government have long adhered to the people-centered development concept. They take the improvement of people's livelihoods as a fundamental starting point in the pursuit of goals such as economic and social development, responding to people's needs, solving people's problems, making up for shortcomings in people's lives, and securing a baseline of comfort for people.

More than 370,000 new urban jobs have been created in the last five years, and 326,000 new rural laborers were employed. The urban zero-employment households were helped, and the registered unemployment rate was controlled within 4 percent.

In 2020, in the face of the pandemic, Nanyang transported 1.327 million migrant workers back to work through various programs such as "point-to-point" resumption of work, special trains, and special planes, solving migrant workers' employment problems.

The city focused on the employment of key groups such as college students. It launched activities such as the online "Spring Breeze Action", cloud recruitment "live with posts", and built an online employment service platform, so that job seekers could find good jobs without leaving their home. At the same time, it implemented actions that helped enterprises to solve their own difficulties, assisted enterprises in reducing their burdens and stabilizing their employment, and encouraged migrant workers to find employment nearer to home.

In 2020, 72,100 new jobs were created in cities and towns, and the registered unemployment rate in cities and towns was controlled at 3.35 percent, which exceeded the provincial key livelihood targets and tasks.

In 2020, Nanyang took the protection of special groups in poverty as a key measure in the completion of its poverty alleviation task. It integrated 3.2 billion yuan of policy funds, and built 1,481 related institutions.

Nanyang began the centralized trusteeship of village-level welfare compounds, the centralized support of township nursing homes, the centralized support of social welfare institutions, and the centralized rehabilitation of medical institutions combined with medical care. A total of 102,000 people were helped in this way.

The construction of a compact county-level medical community in Nanyang achieved full coverage, and a hierarchical diagnosis and medical treatment pattern has taken shape. More people can now enjoy high-level medical services on their doorsteps, after standardized clinics were built in 1,112 poor villages in the city. The clinics can provide traditional Chinese medicine services, and the rate of consultation within the county has reached 91.45 percent.

In addition, Nanyang is striving to "build a city with culture". It has focused on tapping its cultural resources, cultivating and expanding its cultural brands, and building a strong cultural city.

The city's 12 libraries, 13 cultural centers, 210 township cultural stations, and 4,186 community cultural service centers have all opened to the public for free. Grassroots cultural service centers have been upgraded, and the environment in which people enjoy cultural services has been improved.

Nanyang continues to implement its cultural projects. It has organized 312 performing arts teams to go to grassroots rural areas and communities to perform more than 500 free tours. It actively organized reading activities for the whole community. The first nine "Zhuge Bookstores" built in the central city were officially opened, the registered users of "People's Culture Nanyang Cloud" reached more than 1.1 million, and more than 10,000 online cultural activities were carried out.

Nanyang plans to complete the transformation of 30,000 old communities this year. By 2023, the city will complete the transformation of old communities built before 2005. It will also continue to promote the construction of affordable housing and begin the reconstruction of 13,896 shanty town abodes.