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The Shanghai Re-employment Model: From Local Experiment to Nation-wide Labour Market Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2004

Grace O. M. Lee  and
Malcolm Warner
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Abstract

Unemployment in China is now a serious and growing problem. In this context, Shanghai has been a pioneer in establishing re-employment service facilities. Starting from a local experiment, the Shanghai programme has been mooted by the Chinese authorities as a model to be replicated nation-wide. In this article, we propose an evaluation of this specific Re-employment Service Centre (zaijiuye fuwu zhongxin) programme, so as to shed light on the measures to be taken in combating urban unemployment. Our empirical field research in Shanghai took the form of over 50 open-ended, qualitative interviews with policy makers, managers, trade union representatives, workers and unemployed persons. Economic developments may make Shanghai seem distinctly special and shed light on the question of wider applicability of the Shanghai model. The replication of such a model has, in our view, only achieved mixed outcomes and the research findings suggest a degree of scepticism as to how far it can be extended.

Type
Research Report
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 177 , March 2004 , pp. 174 - 189
Copyright
© The China Quarterly, 2004

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Footnotes

This article draws on field research in Shanghai financed by research grants from City University of Hong Kong. The research project entitled A Tale of Two Cities – The Social Policy Challenge in Hong Kong and Shanghai co-ordinated by Linda Wong and Gui Shi-xun was funded by the Centre for Comparative Public Management and Social Policy.