From December, China will carry out large-scale spot checks on the
labor market, in order to collect more accurate statistics on
unemployment in the county, according to the Ministry of Labor and
Social Security.
Official sources say, they will conduct investigations in over 10
provinces and municipalities. The relevant preparations are under
way, and professional training is scheduled for participants once
the systems have been fully determined.
The rate of unemployment is usually calculated in one of two ways.
One is the official registered unemployment rate, which the Chinese
government tends to adopt, and the other is achieved through labor
market spot-checks.
The first way is deficient because it ignores those who don't want
to work, or for some reason don't register as unemployed. The
spot-check method, however, investigates the foundations of labor
market information, including the status of employment,
unemployment trends, social security, labor relations, working
hours, skills and education.
From January to September this year, the average number of people
living on monthly unemployment pensions was 3.62 million, 1.29
million more than for the same period last year. During this
period, about 773,000 laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises
(SOEs), 15 percent of the total, were reemployed. By the end of
September, there were 7.52 million who were registered as
unemployed, and the official unemployment rate remains at 3.9
percent. It's believed that official urban unemployment rates could
be kept below 4.5 percent through improved efforts. The latest
statistics show that the number of people taking out unemployment
insurance policies has exceeded the 100 million mark.
(china.org.cn by Tang Fuchun November 16, 2002)