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--Introductory Paper for the Civil Society Forum to the ECOSOC HLS
by Mr.CUI Jianjun
Vice President and Secretary General, China NGO Network for International Exchanges & Council Member, China Association for International Understanding
29 June 2006
•Employment has a vital bearing on people’s livelihood, as the main tool to halve poverty by 2015 committed in MDGs.
•It is the fundamental prerequisite and basic channel for people to improve their livelihood.
•China as the largest developing country and most populous nation in the world, faces a formidable and pressing task in generating full and productive employment and decent work for all
I. CHINA’S OVERALL JOB SITUATION
Facts and Figures by 2005:
•Total population was 1.31 billion.
•Total number of employed population was 758.25m.
•Employment in urban area: 273.31m, accounting for 36% of the total employment,
•Employment in rural area: 484.94m, accounting for 64% of the total employment.
EMPLOYMENT BY INDUSTRY
•Employment in primary industry was 339.7m, accounting for 44.8% of the total employment;
•Employment in secondary industry was 180.84m, accounting for 23.8% of the total employment;
•Employment in tertiary industry was 237.71m, accounting for 31.4% of the total employment.
INCREASE OF NEWLY EMPLOYED POPULATION
•1990-2003 Total increase of 96.83m
» Annual increase of 7.45m
2004 increase of 7.68m
2005 increase of 6.25m
UNEMPLOYMENT
•2003 Urban registered jobless: 8m
Unemployment rate: 4.3%
•2004 Urban registered jobless: 8.27m
Unemployment rate: 4.2%
•2005 Urban registered jobless: 8.39m
Unemployment rate: 4.2%
PROMINENT FEATURES OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN CHINA
Mixed Problems:
•A large working-age population with relatively low level of education.
•More workforce supply than labor market demand.
•Structural transformation with a large number of laid-off workers.
•Increasing employment pressure in urban areas coincided with growing migration of rural labor force into non-agricultural sectors.
•Employment for new entrants to the workforce coincided with reemployment for laid-off workers.
ACHIEVEMENTS MADE
•China has established a market-oriented employment mechanism,
•Basically solved the redundant problem arising over the years under the planned economy,
•Sustained a rapid economic growth rate which underscored demand for new employment,
•Expanded the employment pool through economic restructuring,
•Maintained an overall stable employment situation.
FORMIDABLE CHALLENGES AHEAD
Employment problem in China is chronic, arduous and complex. In the next several years, China will face a period when working-age population growth peaks, reemployment of laid-off workers gets tough, rural migration accelerates, hence employment pressure remains heavy and the mission of generating full and productive employment and decent work for all yet still to be accomplished.
CHALLENGE 1: LABOR FORCE SUPPLY REMAINS UNREBATED
•10m new labor force in the urban area in addition to 14m laid-off workers of the previous year, totaling 24m waiting to be employed every year.
•10m to 11m jobs will be offered every year if the economy continues to grow at around 8%.
•A shortfall of job supply still stands at around 13m to 14m a year.
•Coincidentally, rural migration will constantly expand, making the shortfall even worse.
CHALLENGE 2: REEMPLOYMENT OF LAID-OFF WORKERS GETS TOUGH
In the course of China’s transformation from planned economy to market economy, nearly 10m laid-off workers are waiting to be reemployed.
•2m laid-off workers from SOEs of the previous years have not yet been employed.
•4m redundant workers from collectively-owned enterprises are still jobless.
•Another 3.6m workers need relocation in the next 3 years as more SOEs are closed.
•For some reemployed workers, jobs are not stable.
CHALLENGE 3: NEW MIGRANTS PUT PRESSURE ON JOB MARKET
•With more people receiving higher education, more college graduates are looking for jobs across regional boundaries.
•Veterans prefer to stay in urban area for employment after leaving the army.
•Surplus rural labor and landless farmers are moving into the cities for jobs.
•In 2004, there were 7.75m college graduates, 0.35m veterans and 2.7m rural laborers totaling 10.8m migrants hunting for jobs in urban area, amounting to 45% of the urban labor force supply that year.
CHALLENGE 4: LABOR QUALITY FAILS TO MEET THE DEMAND
•Over the years, China’s vocational education and technical training have failed to meet the demand of the growing manufacturing industry, modern service industry and transfer of international industry.
•There is a severe shortage of skilled workers in many places and sectors.
•The technical skills and employability of the laid-off workers are in urgent need of improvement, otherwise, it’s hard for them to find new jobs.
II. CHINA’S PROACTIVE EMPLOYMENT POLICY
China has managed to achieve a rapid economic development with an annual GDP growth rate of over 9% in the past 25 years of reform and open-up. People’s livelihood has been enormously improved. But at the same time, some areas have been neglected. In implementing the MDGs, more emphasis is put on sustainable and scientific development concept, e.g. the objective of building a harmonious socialist society is to put people first. Accordingly, employment growth is placed high on the agenda of China’s economic and social development.
SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT
•It aims to promote development by taking a human-oriented approach.
•It shifts the focus from increasing material wealth to promoting all-round human development and coordinated economic and social development.
•It puts what people concern most in the first place in providing public service.
•The call for full and productive employment and decent work is one of the utmost concerns of the people, hence we should exhaust all means to expand employment in the interest of the people.
OVERALL OBJECTIVES
The overall objectives to address the issue of employment in China are as follows:
•Putting into practice the scientific development concept.
•Meeting to needs of economic and social development for qualified and adequate human resources.
•Satisfying the desire of the people to have decent work and their wish to have decent pay.
•Striving for relatively full employment and keeping the unemployment rate at a level that society can sustain.
CHINA’S EMPLOYMENT POLICIES
To create an enabling environment at the national level conducive to growth and employment, China adopts the following policies:
•Encouraging job-seekers to find work on their own.
•Creating more job opportunities through market regulation.
•Facilitating employment by government means.
As a result, achievements have been made in the following aspects:
ACHIEVEMENT 1:
GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT RECIPROCATE EACH OTHER
A situation whereby economic growth and employment increase reciprocate each other in a sound way has been created. The pace of economic growth and structural readjustment is closely linked to and designed for the needs of employment.
•Tertiary industry has become a focus for economic readjustment absorbing 230m people by 2004.
•Labor intensive sectors and small-and-medium sized enterprises are emphasized increasing urban employment by 28m in the last 3 years.
•Individual and private ownership is encouraged creating 96.04m jobs by 2004.
ACHIEVEMENT 2:
FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO JOB CREATION
Tax exemption and access to credit play a positive role in encouraging people to seek jobs and employers to recruit workers especially in terms of reemployment.
•First, exemption of tax and fees as well as micro-credit loans promote self-employment and business initiatives. Since 2003, over 4m people have found jobs by themselves including 300,000 people starting their own business through micro-credit loans.
•Second, tax rebates and social security subsidies give incentives to employers to recruit more laid-off workers. Since 2003, 6m people have found jobs again in some enterprises.
•Third, job and social security subsidies for public welfare posts help the disadvantaged people to find paid work. Since 2003, 3.9m laid-off workers of 40-50 years old have found jobs again this way, greatly changing the difficult situations they faced.
ACHIEVEMENT 3:
PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICE AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING
•Public employment service is becoming more professional, institutional and community-based. This mechanism has provided free service to 13m laid-off workers since 2003.
•Vocational training and capacity building contribute to more successful stories. Training subsidies are contingent on the end-results of employment. Micro-credit loans are provided to those undertaking vocational training. Since 2003, 11m laid-off workers have participated in job training courses and the employment rate after training reached 60%, 770,000 people have gong through business start-up training and the proportion of success reached 55%.
ACHIEVEMENT 4:
ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR EMPLOYMENT
•Enhanced awareness and strengthened efforts have kept the overall unemployment rate low and stable for the past few years.
•Unemployment insurance scheme has replaced the “safety net scheme” for nearly all SOE laid-off workers by 2005 so that they receive better payment than before.
•More job information and guidance are provided for college graduates which has helped to maintain a pretty high and stable employment rate for the last few years.
•New progress has been made for the peasant migrant workers by improving their employment environment in the cities, developing organized labor transfer, conducting pre-job training and safeguarding their lawful rights and interests.
III. CHINESE NGO’S ROLE
Employment work is a huge social and systematic project, which requires joint efforts of all social forces and coordinated participation by the government, civil society, non-governmental organizations and business sectors. The China’s NGOs have a big role to play in creating a harmonious employment environment and promoting employment development. They are engaged in studies, training, job service, publication and presentation of ideas. In doing so, they form partnership with the government and the workers. In my umbrella organization CHINA NGO NETWORK FOR INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES, we have 25 national NGOs working in various fields including many in the employment field. Together with other NGOs, we have done a good job in the following aspects:
ASPECT 1:
ACTIVE WORK FOR BETTER EMPLOYMENT ENVIRONMENT
NGOs engaged in job promotion such as China Association for Promotion of Employment, carry out in-depth studies according to China’s current situation, come out with new ideas and suggestions, put forward feasible recommendations to the government, cooperate with relevant sectors to implement the employment policy while brainstorming on the long-term mechanism good for employment under market economy.
ASPECT 2:
CONSTANT BUILDING OF CAPACITIES
NGOs engaged in vocational education and technical training such as China Society of Vocational Education, have done a lot in creating favorable conditions for first-time job seekers and reemployment of the laid-offs. They set up either formal schools or informal courses to train what is most needed in the labor market through skill training, vocational education, employment guidance and human resource development. When people’s capacities are built up, there are more opportunities for them to find suitable jobs.
ASPECT 3:
SAFEGUARDING WORKERS’ RIGHTS AND INTERESTS
NGOs engaged in rights and interests protection for specific groups of people such as the All-China Youth Association, All-China Women’s Association and All-China Association of the Disabled Persons, have always paid great attention to their employment, advocating for equal rights to employment and payment between men and women, and for preferential policies to protect the disabled persons in their employment.
ASPECT 4:
PARTICIPATING IN JOB SERVICE
NGOs engaged in employment service and other intermediary services use their own advantages to establish labor market information networks providing updated and true job vacancies as well as the tendency of the market need. So they played a guiding role in rational allocation of labor resources.
UN-NGO-IRENE/ASIA-PACIFIC COORDINATOR
Encouraged and authorized by Dr. Hanifa Mezoui, Chief of the NGO Section / DESA / ECOSOC / UN, we formed a coalition among the Chinese NGOs in Consultative Status with ECOSOC called CHINA NGO NETWORK FOR INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES (CNIE). In March this year, CNIE launched the UN-NGO-IRENE/Asia-Pacific Coordination in Beijing. We were honored to have Dr. Hanifa Mezoui joining us together with 9 other NGOs from some other Asian countries. We had lively discussions on the theme of this year’s ECOSOC HLS “Creating an environment at the national and international levels conducive to generating full and productive employment and decent work for all, and its impact on sustainable development” and produced a Letter of Recommendations to the HLS.
CONCLUSION
Despite of the successful stories in China’s growth and employment, we still face serious challenges and obstacles ahead. In economic globalization, no country is isolated or insulated. Today, we are here to attend the Civil Society Forum to the ECOSOC HLS. We are willing to share China’s experience in employment with friends and colleagues present, and more importantly, we will draw reference from other countries’ good practice in promoting employment so as to better implement the MDGs and contribute to the building of a harmonious world.
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