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Feb 3, 2009
20m migrants jobless <!--10 min-->
Up to 3 times earlier estimate, data has govt pledging 'forceful steps' <!-- headline one : start --> <!-- headline one : end --> <!-- Author --> <!-- show image if available --> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr></tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold">By Sim Chi Yin, China Correspondent </td></tr> <tr valign="bottom"> <td width="330">
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PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--> BEIJING: The economic downturn has cost 20 million Chinese migrant workers their jobs, a senior official said yesterday, confirming fears that the slowdown in the world's third-largest economy is intensifying. Top rural policymaker Chen Xiwen revealed the startling figure - two to three times higher than previous government estimates - as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged 'extraordinary measures' to crank up the economy, over and above a 4 trillion yuan (S$886 billion) stimulus package announced late last year.
Mr Wen, speaking in London, said in an interview with the Financial Times: 'We must take forceful steps. Under special circumstances, necessary and extraordinary measures are required.' He said Beijing would pull out all the stops - including possibly using foreign reserves - to maintain China's economic growth at 'about 8 per cent' this year, a growth target thought to be the minimum needed to ward off social unrest. China's economic growth slumped to 6.8 per cent in the last quarter of last year, slowing the annual pace of expansion to a seven-year low of 9.0 per cent.
Global demand for 'Made-in-China' exports has collapsed in recent months, shuttering factories in the country's once-booming coastal cities and sending a chunk of its 130 million farmers- turned-migrant workers packing. With sporadic protests already worrying the authorities, jobless migrants were 'a new factor affecting social stability this year', said Mr Chen, who advises China's top leaders on rural policies. 'There's a considerable number of rural migrants who are unemployed. After they return to villages, what about their incomes? How will they live?' he said at a press conference. 'Protecting employment and protecting people's welfare is protecting rural social stability.'
The latest figure - of 20 million jobless migrants - is from a Ministry of Agriculture survey of 165 villages across 15 provinces before Chinese New Year. Adding to that strain: an average of six to seven million rural residents leave their homes to find jobs in cities every year. 'So, there will be fairly big pressure on employment for around 25 to 26 million rural residents,' noted Mr Chen. The first half of this year will be especially difficult for migrant workers, he said. Looking ahead, he told reporters: 'We'll need to see how far global demand recovers in the first half of the year and how well the measures already taken by the central government work.
'If those two factors combine well, the problem of migrant workers' unemployment should be solved quite quickly.' China's Cabinet warned on Sunday that 2009 would be the 'toughest year' since the turn of the century for the countryside - where more than half of the country's population lives. It pledged more subsidies for farming and increased spending on public services. Reflecting growing fears that the massive upsurge in unemployment numbers could trigger instability, Mr Chen said the use of force to quell unrest will, 'in principle, not be encouraged'. Meanwhile, in Xingyue village in Sichuan province, Mr Zou Wanhai, 40, is just twiddling his thumbs. He lost his job in Chengdu last month, when the hotel where he had been earning 800 yuan a month as a security guard for the past three years folded. Mr Zou, who has two school-going children, said: 'My financial burden is heavy. What shall I do?'
[email protected]
Feb 3, 2009
20m migrants jobless <!--10 min-->
Up to 3 times earlier estimate, data has govt pledging 'forceful steps' <!-- headline one : start --> <!-- headline one : end --> <!-- Author --> <!-- show image if available --> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr></tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr> </tr> <tr><td colspan="2" class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold">By Sim Chi Yin, China Correspondent </td></tr> <tr valign="bottom"> <td width="330">
</td> <td width="10">
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
</td></tr> <tr><td>
</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--> BEIJING: The economic downturn has cost 20 million Chinese migrant workers their jobs, a senior official said yesterday, confirming fears that the slowdown in the world's third-largest economy is intensifying. Top rural policymaker Chen Xiwen revealed the startling figure - two to three times higher than previous government estimates - as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged 'extraordinary measures' to crank up the economy, over and above a 4 trillion yuan (S$886 billion) stimulus package announced late last year.
Mr Wen, speaking in London, said in an interview with the Financial Times: 'We must take forceful steps. Under special circumstances, necessary and extraordinary measures are required.' He said Beijing would pull out all the stops - including possibly using foreign reserves - to maintain China's economic growth at 'about 8 per cent' this year, a growth target thought to be the minimum needed to ward off social unrest. China's economic growth slumped to 6.8 per cent in the last quarter of last year, slowing the annual pace of expansion to a seven-year low of 9.0 per cent.
Global demand for 'Made-in-China' exports has collapsed in recent months, shuttering factories in the country's once-booming coastal cities and sending a chunk of its 130 million farmers- turned-migrant workers packing. With sporadic protests already worrying the authorities, jobless migrants were 'a new factor affecting social stability this year', said Mr Chen, who advises China's top leaders on rural policies. 'There's a considerable number of rural migrants who are unemployed. After they return to villages, what about their incomes? How will they live?' he said at a press conference. 'Protecting employment and protecting people's welfare is protecting rural social stability.'
The latest figure - of 20 million jobless migrants - is from a Ministry of Agriculture survey of 165 villages across 15 provinces before Chinese New Year. Adding to that strain: an average of six to seven million rural residents leave their homes to find jobs in cities every year. 'So, there will be fairly big pressure on employment for around 25 to 26 million rural residents,' noted Mr Chen. The first half of this year will be especially difficult for migrant workers, he said. Looking ahead, he told reporters: 'We'll need to see how far global demand recovers in the first half of the year and how well the measures already taken by the central government work.
'If those two factors combine well, the problem of migrant workers' unemployment should be solved quite quickly.' China's Cabinet warned on Sunday that 2009 would be the 'toughest year' since the turn of the century for the countryside - where more than half of the country's population lives. It pledged more subsidies for farming and increased spending on public services. Reflecting growing fears that the massive upsurge in unemployment numbers could trigger instability, Mr Chen said the use of force to quell unrest will, 'in principle, not be encouraged'. Meanwhile, in Xingyue village in Sichuan province, Mr Zou Wanhai, 40, is just twiddling his thumbs. He lost his job in Chengdu last month, when the hotel where he had been earning 800 yuan a month as a security guard for the past three years folded. Mr Zou, who has two school-going children, said: 'My financial burden is heavy. What shall I do?'
[email protected]
