China's employment and re-employment situation remains tough with a
surge this year in the number of graduates hitting the job market
and in unemployment in general, a senior official said.
The country's registered average unemployment rate in urban areas
reached 4 percent last year and is expected to go higher this year,
Labor and Social Security Minister Zheng Silin told Xinhua
yesterday.
There are nearly 14 million laid-off workers in urban areas so far.
And more than 10 million new graduates are predicted to enter the
work force, Zheng said.
To
make things worse, the nation's agricultural adjustment has forced
more than 150 million rural workers to quit farming. Many of them
will head to the cities to seek employment, posing uncertainties
for the State, he said.
Zheng, who was appointed as the minister during the first session
of the 10th National People's Congress in March, has urged his
departments nationwide to do more to assist laid-off workers to
restart their lives.
"Helping middle-aged laid-off workers to find jobs again is the
ministry's key task this year," Zheng said during a conference
earlier this month.
The State will make efforts to create more than 8 million new jobs
this year, mostly in the service and building industries.
These two sectors each employed 300,000 more workers in 2002,
compared with 2001.
Zheng said one million of the positions will be allocated to
middle-aged laid-off workers.
Most of the country's labor and social security departments have
launched policies to enhance the re-employment of laid-off people,
especially those middle-aged -- women aged above 40 and men older
than 50.
The country's employment population reached 737.4 million last
year, absorbing 7.2 million more employees than the previous year,
according to the latest data from the National Bureau of
Statistics.
(China Daily April 24, 2003)