China publishes white paper on employment for first time
www.chinaview.cn 2004-04-26 21:30:14
BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The Information Office of the State Council, or the central government, for the first time published a White Paper on China's Employment Situation and Policies here Monday, setting forth the objectives for handling the country's unemployment problem in the coming two decades.
"The issue of the paper sends the signal that the Chinese government is changing its attitude towards the grave employment situation, attaching greater importance and shouldering more responsibilities on it," said Zheng Gongcheng, a noted professor with the School of Labor Relations and Human Resources under the Beijing-based People's University of China.
Statistics from the white paper showed that China's registered unemployment rate has been growing continuously for three years, reaching 4.3 percent by the end of 2003. The number of registered jobless urbanites stood at eight million.
In the next two decades, the population aged above 16 will growby 5.5 million annually on average in China, and the working age population will reach 940 million by 2020.
"The knotty unemployment situation has refuted people's stereotype of identifying the jobless with the disadvantaged groups, like the disabled. The unemployment of youth has also become a salient problem, including the well-educated college graduates," said Prof. Zheng, who is also a member of the NationalPeople's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.
Statistics showed that 70 percent of the total registered unemployed urbanities are aged below 35.
"The market regulations already in place are far from adequate to handle the unemployment issue," said Zheng.
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