Jobs stable but there may be trouble ahead
Source: Xinhua |
April 26, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A SLOWDOWN in China's economy has not caused employment woes, officials say, but they also warn of challenges as growing difficulties confront the country's small companies.
China's urban registered unemployment rate was at 4.1 percent in the first three months of 2012, according to figures released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security yesterday.
That means the rate has remained constant for seven consecutive quarters and is well below the government's 4.6 percent annual target it set for this year.
A total of 3.32 million new jobs were created in urban areas in the first three months of this year, up 9.6 percent from a year earlier, ministry spokesman Yin Chengji said at a press conference.
The government has vowed to create more than 9 million new jobs in towns and cities this year.
Yin said a sluggish global market, rising trade protectionism and a slowdown in the national economy will all pose challenges to the country's employment situation this year.
China's economy expanded 8.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, marking the slowest pace in almost three years, as exports waned due to lower demand from major trade partners such as the European Union and the United States.
The economy is likely to endure further downward pressure as both domestic and external conditions are grim and companies "are confronting growing operational difficulties, including higher energy prices and substantially higher wages," said Zhu Hongren, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
According to human resources ministry statistics, there will be a huge gap between employment supply and demand as the country will need 25 million new jobs this year but the market only offered an average of 12 million new job opportunities in previous years.
However, compared with a shortage of jobs, the structural unemployment issue was more concerned with workers being competent for new jobs and a labor shortage spreading inland from the coastal regions, Yin said.
Although there are various challenges, there are ways to solve them, said Zhou Tianyong, professor of the School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, calling for more support for small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for more than 75 percent of the country's employment.
China's urban registered unemployment rate was at 4.1 percent in the first three months of 2012, according to figures released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security yesterday.
That means the rate has remained constant for seven consecutive quarters and is well below the government's 4.6 percent annual target it set for this year.
A total of 3.32 million new jobs were created in urban areas in the first three months of this year, up 9.6 percent from a year earlier, ministry spokesman Yin Chengji said at a press conference.
The government has vowed to create more than 9 million new jobs in towns and cities this year.
Yin said a sluggish global market, rising trade protectionism and a slowdown in the national economy will all pose challenges to the country's employment situation this year.
China's economy expanded 8.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, marking the slowest pace in almost three years, as exports waned due to lower demand from major trade partners such as the European Union and the United States.
The economy is likely to endure further downward pressure as both domestic and external conditions are grim and companies "are confronting growing operational difficulties, including higher energy prices and substantially higher wages," said Zhu Hongren, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
According to human resources ministry statistics, there will be a huge gap between employment supply and demand as the country will need 25 million new jobs this year but the market only offered an average of 12 million new job opportunities in previous years.
However, compared with a shortage of jobs, the structural unemployment issue was more concerned with workers being competent for new jobs and a labor shortage spreading inland from the coastal regions, Yin said.
Although there are various challenges, there are ways to solve them, said Zhou Tianyong, professor of the School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, calling for more support for small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for more than 75 percent of the country's employment.
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