Anhui sees success with trial job pool

To address an acute labor shortage in government-affiliated institutions in Anhui province, job offerings are being handled like money in a bank: Deposits and withdrawals are made, and assets are moved from one government account to another to be used by whichever department has the greatest need.

The idea has been undergoing a trial run for the past three years in the province and has seen great success.

Using big data, government entities that have open positions-ones that are budgeted but won't be filled immediately-register quotas in a bank-like system. Entities that need employees but failed to budget for them can use the extra quotas.

Depositors are allowed to withdraw from the bank when they need to recruit a new employee, while those who borrow are evaluated later to see whether they made good use of the policy.

The trial applies to vacancies, estimated at 150,000, among 1.1 million jobs including teachers at public schools or doctors at government-run hospitals, but it does not apply to jobs for people who are usually thought of as public servants.

"It was initiated in 2016 because a substantial number of the province's officially budgeted jobs had been left vacant for a long time," said Guo Benchun, director of Anhui's public sector reform commission office.

On the other hand, severe shortages at some government-affiliated institutions-the result of underbudgeting-have made it difficult for them to fulfill their duties. Education and public health have felt particular pain.

For example, the ratio of undergraduate students to teachers was 26-to-1 on average in the province as of July 2016, according to the commission. By many estimates, that's not nearly enough teachers.

In Hefei, the provincial capital, Anhui University's student body increased from around 7,000 in 1999 to more than 36,000 in 2015, but budgeted teaching posts increased by only 351 in that period.

Provincial authorities calculate that to meet the Ministry of Education's requirements, there should be nearly 10,000 more college teachers in the province. The situation for public hospitals is no better.

To solve the problem, authorities came up with the job pooling concept. They put the idea into operation in August 2016 with 90,000 vacant jobs.

In addition to positions at colleges, 20,000 other jobs have been offered for elementary and secondary schools. Another 60,000 are designated for public hospitals.

Before the trial, the province had tried to take back certain posts from some institutions and redistribute them, but the effort was not really successful.

"One of the reasons the institutions are unwilling to reduce their quotas, even though they're not using the positions, is that they want to save them for future use," said Li Huan, who has been in charge of the new mechanism.

Success has been achieved partly because of big data technology, the Anhui reform commission's Guo said. By using it, provincial authorities were able to establish a new real-name system so they know who has been employed in each job and are able to keep up with changes.