Job growth strong sign of recovery

By Wang Linyan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-04 07:12

Signaling a recovery in China's employment market, 3.65 million urban residents found new jobs in the first four months of the year, an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao said Wednesday.

The short-term measures that the country has taken to counter the employment pressures are adequate, said Yang Weiguo, an associate professor at the school of labor and human resources of Renmin University of China.

In the long run, consideration is needed in creating jobs that meet the needs of the country's development, Yang suggested.

China's urban unemployment rate was 4.2 percent at the end of 2008 and 8.86 million urban residents were registered as jobless, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The government has taken a series of measures to stabilize and increase employment since the second half of last year.

They include expanding domestic consumption, reducing enterprises' tax burden, encouraging graduates and migrant workers to be self-employed and setting up vocational training.

The government plans to allocate 42 billion yuan ($6 billion) from the 2009 central budget to increase employment, up 66 percent from last year, said a statement from the meeting.

However, it pointed out that the employment situation in China is still grim, with an oversupply of laborers and structural problems, as China's economy is not recovering on a solid footing.

Lu Quan, a PhD from the Social Security Research Center in Renmin University of China, said university students and migrant workers are the two main sources of pressure.

Lu suggested employment policies should relate to industry policies.

The development of the service industry would also help create jobs for migrant workers, he said.

According to government figures, 6.11 million new graduates will be fighting for positions this year, along with the nearly one million who have been unemployed since last year.

Yang said most of the university students can find jobs.

"It's just some are selective with what they can get. But they will adjust their expectations along with the change of the labor market," he said.

Enterprises and scientific and research organizations are encouraged to take university graduates.

The government will also encourage the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises and those of the service sector, which will provide more jobs than big enterprises, the statement said.

It said the vocational training plan should be implemented sooner and enterprises should be encouraged to offer skill training for its employees.

"Specialized skills allow these young people to have job choices, but also match the needs of the country's industry development," Yang said.

"Besides, it's more effective to train them at a younger age."