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Urban School-leavers and Unemployment in China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

John Philip Emerson
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What is unemployment in China? For 20 years after the Great Leap Forward was officially credited with having achieved full employment in 1958, this question could not even be raised in the People's Republic of China. From the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 and up to 1958 unemployment problems had been prominently featured in the Chinese press. In 1978 unemployment again became a topic of discussion. The reappearance of unemployment as an acceptable subject of debate was a further indication of how much of Maoist ideology had been officially discarded since the death of Mao Zedong two years earlier. One Chinese summed up these changes as they related to employment problems in this way2: Employment is a major economic as well as a major social problem. But from 1958 until the destruction of the “gang of four,” problems of employment virtually constituted a taboo which could not be discussed in public. After the smashing of the “gang of four” and especially after the third plenary session of the 11th Party Congress (December 1978), a new employment policy was decided on. This was a strategic decision of immense significance.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 93 , March 1983 , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1983

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References

1. Lukuan, Zhao (Chinese People's University), “Zai lun laodong jiuye wenti” (“More on the problem of employment”), Renkou yanjiu (Population Research) (hereafter cited as RKYJ), No. 4 (10 1981), p. 19Google Scholar;

2. Ibid. p. 18.

3. In this article unemployment is defined as the jobless portion of the labour force that is looking for work. The labour force equals the number of people at work plus the number of the unemployed. Here the labour force is divided into agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The rate of unemployment is the number of unemployed given as a proportion of the labour force. Comparable data on the agricultural sector are not available.

4. State Planning Commission Vice-minister Gu Ming's 11 October 1979 statement is cited in British Broadcasting Corporation, Summary of World Broadcasts. Pt. III: The Far East, 24 October 1979, W1054/A2.

5. Given in Cui Quanhong's article on employment and the Four Modernizations published in the unofficial Sihua luntan (Four Modernizations Forum), No. 1 (15 09 1979)Google Scholar; and translated in U.S. Joint Publications Research Service (hereafter cited asJPRS), 74, 970 (21 01 1980), pp. 69–70Google Scholar;

6. For 1979, 94 million people are estimated to have been employed in the non-agricultural sector, according to Emerson, John Philip, “The labor force of China, 1957–80,” in U. S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Hardt, John (ed.), The Four Modernizations (Washington, D.C., 1982), pp. 235–37Google Scholar; This chapter is hereafter cited as Emerson, 1982.

7. Article by Xun, Liu, Yuanzhen, Zhu and Keliang, Sun in Guangming ribao (Clarity Daily) (hereafter GMRB), 16 08 1981Google Scholar; translated inForeign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report, People's Republic of China (hereafter cited as FBIS), 1 09 1981, p. K11Google Scholar;

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10. “Director Kang Yonghe,” p. 62.

11. “Explanations of the draft 1956–67 national program for agricultural development,” New China News Agency (NCNA), 25 January 1956; translated in American Consulate General,Survey of China Mainland Press (SCMP) (Hong Kong), No. 1219 (31 01 1956), p. 24Google Scholar;

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13. Figure cited by Deng Xiaoping in his 16 January 1980 speech at a national cadre convention in Beijing, published inZhengming (Contention) (Hong Kong), 1 03 1980, and translated in FBIS, 19 03 1980, Supplement, p. 23Google Scholar;

14. “Director Kang Yonghe,” p. 61.

15. See, for example, the item entitled “Zhao gong zhong bu ying zhong nan ching nu” (“In recruiting men should not be favoured and women slighted”) Gongren ribao (The Daily Worker), 7 March 1982, p. 1.

16. Jingxin, Sun, RKYJ, No. 2 (29 03 1982), p. 35Google Scholar;

17. Ibid. p. 36.

18. Renmin ribao (People's Daily) (RMRB), 3 October 1981, p. 5.

19. John Lossing Buck is one of the few writers on the pre-1949 economy of China who tried to measure unemployment by means of field samples. For this, see hisLand Utilisation in China (Chicago 1937), pp. 288–301Google Scholar;

20. If a city lists 10% or more of the urban labour force as “waiting for employment” (i.e. unemployed), when half or more of those so listed actually have jobs, the number of unemployed has been overstated by 100% or more. This order of magnitude is suggested by the shares of employment attributed to the kinds of employment, permanent, temporary, etc., given above in the text. See RMRB, 3 October 1981, p. 5.

21. This form of discrimination against women is discussed in detail, as it was practised through 1957, inThorborg, Marina, Women in Nonagricultural Production in Post Revolutionary China, dissertation written in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Doctorate of Philosophy, University of Uppsala (1980), pp. 85–90Google Scholar;

22. An outline of urban population statistics for China, giving the names of a number of tables of urban population statistical data currently used by the State Statistical Bureau (SSB), is contained inWeizhi, Wang (comp.), Renkou tongji (Population Statistics) (Beijing 1981), pp. 35–39Google Scholar; but to date none of these tables with figures has appeared in published sources. The present official urban population time series is discontinuous, since urban population totals for recent years are not comparable to those the State Statistical Bureau published for the 1950s. For this, see Emerson (1982), p. 230.

23. Examples of such reporting are the provincial population data published in Zhongguo baike nianjian 1980 (Chinese Encyclopedic Yearbook 1980) (Beijing 1980), pp. 62–115Google Scholar;

24. RMRB, 3 October 1981, p. 5 confirms what is said inWeizhi, Wang, Renkou tongji, p. 33Google Scholar;

25. Bernstein, Thomas P., Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977)Google Scholar; treats this subject more fully than any other author has to date.

26. Yonghe, Kang, “Zhongguo chengzhen de laodong jiuye” (“Employment in cities and towns in China”). RKYJ, No. 1 (29 01 1982), p. 17Google Scholar; gives 17 million, as doesYouren, Wu, “Guanyu woguo shehuizhuyi chengshihua went!” (“ Problems of socialist urbanization in our country”) Renkou yu jingji (Population and Economy), No. 1 (15 09 1980), p. 20Google Scholar;

27. A firsthand account of the return to the city from rural districts of large numbers of Shanghai youth is given inGold, Thomas B., “Back to the city, the return of Shanghai's educated youth,” The China Quarterly (hereafter cited as CQ), No. 84 (12 1980), pp. 755–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar;

28. Labour planning never became an effective working routine in China during the First Five-Year Plan period (1952–57). It was abandoned during the Great Leap Forward years (1958–60). Thereafter no attempts were made to restore it until 1978. For labour planning from 1952 to 1960, seeEmerson, John Philip, “Employment in mainland China: problems and prospects” (hereafter cited as Emerson, 1967), U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Hardt, John (ed.), An Economic Profile of Mainland China (Washington, D.C., 1967), pp. 435–37Google Scholar; For labour planning since 1978, see Emerson, 1982, pp. 235–37.

29. This paragraph summarizesEmerson, John Philip, “Chinese Communist Party views on labour utilization before and after 1958,” Current Scene, Vol. I, No. 30 (2 04 1964), pp. 1–4Google Scholar;

30. Emerson, 1967, pp. 420–22 summarizes government efforts to control rural-to-urban migration through 1964. Some additional details are given inEmerson, John Philip, “Manpower absorption in the nonagricultural branches of the economy of Communist China, 1953–58,” CQ, No. 7 (July–September) 1961), pp. 69–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar;

31. KangYonghe, , “Zhongguochengzhendelaodongjiuye,” p. 17Google Scholar;

32. “Guowuyuanguanyuyangekongzhinongcunlaodonglijinchengzuogonghenongye renkou zhuanwei feinongye renkou de tongzhi” (“State Council notice on strict control over rural labour entering cities to work and agricultural population becoming non-agricultural population”), dated 31 December 1981,Zhonghua renmin gongheguo guowuyuan gongbao (Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China), No. 27 (374) (10 02 1982), pp. 885–87Google Scholar;

33. Average wages and values of welfare subsidies in yuan are given below under “The importance of jobs to urban youth.”

34. Bureau of the Census,Emerson, John Philip, Nonagricultural Employment in Mainland China: 1949–1958, International Population Statistics Reports, Series P–90, No.21 (Washington, D.C., 1965), pp. 83Google Scholar; 128, 140 and 141. This report is hereafter cited as Bureau of the Census, 1965.

35. Even scarce technical specialists and professionally trained personnel were often or perhaps generally given job assignments that had little or nothing to do with their job experience, training or educational background. Some details are given in Bureau of Economic Analysis, Emerson, John Philip, Administrative and Technical Manpower in the People's Republic of China, International Population Reports, Series P–95, No. 72: (Washington, D.C., 1973), pp. 73–85Google Scholar;

36. Emerson, 1982, pp. 251–52.

37. For additional details on subsidies that accrue to non-agricultural workers, see “The importance of jobs to urban youth “ below.

38. It costs three times as much to raise an urban youth as it does a peasant youth in China, according to a recent survey. This is a crude measure of the differences in goods and services available per capita in urban and rural areas of China. For the survey results, seeWang's, Yu article on population, education, and the economy, RKYJ, No. 2 (04 1981), pp. 4–10Google Scholar; esp. p. 10.

39. In Emerson, 1982, p. 250, the author accepted as true official statements that the official prohibition against rural-to-urban migration was working successfully in preventing migration. He has changed his mind since the appearance at the start of 1982 of Kang Yonghe's statement that urban areas absorbed 13 million peasant migrants between 1966 and 1976. For this, seeYonghe, Kang, “Zhongguo chengzhen de laodong jiuye,” p. 17Google Scholar;

40. Emerson, 1982, p. 251.

41. In 1979 Xue Muqiao was perhaps the most outspoken critic of the existing labour bureau monopoly of job allocation, as his remarks inBeijing Review (hereafter cited as BR), No. 33 (13 08, 1979), pp. 13–15Google Scholar; make clear. He is a highly respected advocate of the need for basic reform of the entire economic system of China, adviser to the State Planning Commission (SPC), and director of the SPC's Economic Research Institute.

42. See, for example,Chengzhen jiti jingji yanjiu (Urban Collective Economic Studies) Beijing, 1981Google Scholar; This is a collection of 10 reports and 18 studies presented at a conference held in Shenyang in January 1980 on the urban collective economy.

43. A redefinition of services as a branch of the economy was given in the official State Statistical Bureau journal,Tongji (Statistics) (hereafter cited as 77), No. 3 (10 08 1981), p. 10Google Scholar; According to this definition, services include trade, material supply, (prepared) food and drink, hotels, hostels, trades engaged in repairing consumer goods, barbering, bath-houses, photography, cleaning and dyeing, sewing and other service trades orientated towards the resident population. For the old definition, which included only hotels, bath-houses, barbers, photographic studios and cleaning and dyeing establishments, see Bureau of the Census, 1965, p. 1S4.

44. Muqiao, Xue, BR, No. 33 (13 08 1979), pp. 13–15Google Scholar;

45. In her“Recent Chinese labour policies and the transformation of industrial organization in China,” CQ, No. 88 (12 1981), pp. 578–79Google Scholar; Susan L. Shirk reports on differences between big collective industrial enterprises and state-owned industrial plants. Other examples of collectives are described briefly in “Urban collective economy: development or eliminate it,” BR, No. 35 (31 08 1979), pp. 9–14Google Scholar;

46. Yonghe, Kang, “Zhongguo chengzhen laodongjiuye,“p. 17Google Scholar;

47. Labour turnover accounts for a growing share of employment in an economy, as the working population ages and more members retire or die each year. Also part of labour turnover is the number of people who give up work and leave the labour force. But this number is thought to be negligible in China, even among young mothers, and so need not be considered here. Implementation of the substitution system ( dingti zhi – see Emerson, , 1982, pp. 252–53Google Scholar for details) has sharply increased numbers of people retiring in the past few years in urban areas. The total number of workers and employees grew by only 13 million between 1977 and 1980 from 91 to 104 million (given in Bureau of the Census, The Growth of the Chinese Labour Force: 1952–1980, by John Philip Emerson, Appendix Table 1, forthcoming in the International Population Reports, Series P–95), leaving 16 million to be accounted for by labour turnover. Chinese authorities to date, it should be noted, have said nothing in published materials to indicate that they are aware of the importance of labour turnover in providing employment openings.

48. Employment data by state and collective ownership and by branch of the economy for 1979 and 1980 are given inZhongguo gongshang chiye minglu (Checklist of Chinese Industrial and CommercialEnterprises) (Beijing, 1981), pp. 1–3Google Scholar;

49. E.g. see Changsha Hunan Provincial Service in Mandarin, 2315 GMT, 8 October 1980, Hong Kong; translated in FBIS, No. 208 (22 10 1980), P–2Google Scholar.

50. Priscilla Stowe, U.S. Department of State, supplied the data on self-employment. For the virtual elimination of the non-agricultural private sector by the end of 1958, see Emerson, 1982, p. 263. A detailed study of self-employment in China, entitled“Zhongguo xianjieduan geti jingji yanjiu“ (“Studies of self-employment in China today”), published in Jingji wenti tansuo (Economic Studies Inquiry), Supplement No. 1 (15) (03), 1982 (Kunming?), 99Google Scholar pp., gives more data on self-employment in China than any other work known to this author.

51. E.g.Muqiao, Xue, BR, No. 33 (17 08 1979), pp. 13–14Google Scholar;

52. Enterprises established to satisfy consumer wants form the most important parts of very successful provincial employment programmes. For example, expansion of trade (including food and drink) and services were the first two of Liaoning's six avenues to employment, a programme that raised the number of workers and employees by 40% during the four years 1977–80, according to an article on Liaoning in RMRB, 14 June 1981, p.l.

53. Bureau of the Census, 1965, p. 128.

54. An article byGuangchian, Bao, RMRB, 13 08 1979, p. 2Google Scholar; gives 9–5% as the service trades' share of the total number of workers and employees in 1978. This overall figure is supported by data for dozens of Chinese cities analysed in terms of economic functions inYouren, Wu, “Guanyu woguo chengzhen renkou laodong goucheng de chubu yanjiu“ (“A preliminary study of the labour structure of city and town population in China”), Dilixuebao {Acta Geographica Sinica), Vol. 36, No. 2 (06 1981), pp. 128–32Google Scholar;

55. Ibid. p. 134.

56. The principal functions of labour service companies are spelled out in a front page article on the Tianjin company in Tianjin ribao (Tianmin Daily), 19 July 1980.

57. Yonghe, Kang, “Zhongguo chengzhen de laodong jiuye,”. 18Google Scholar;

58. For details, seeShirk, Susan L., “Recent Chinese labour policies,“. 576–79Google Scholar;

59. Shirk, Susan L., Career Incentives and Student Strategies in China (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1982)Google Scholar; passim.

60. Communique' of the State Statistical Bureau of the People's Republic of China on Fulfilment of China's 1980 National Economic Plan, dated 29 April 1981 (Beijing, 1981) p. 31Google Scholar (Chinese text) and p. 54 (English text).

61. This figure is cited inChiyuan, Xiang, “Zhongguo de jingji fazhan he renmin de shouru fenpei“ (“Economic development of China and income distribution among the people”), in Dixin, Xu (ed.), Zhongguo guomin jingji fazhan zhong de wenti (Problems in the Development of China's National Economy) (Beijing, 1981), p. 61Google Scholar; The author is indebted to Professor Nicholas Lardy for calling his attention to this source on subsidies associated with the wages of workers in state-owned establishments.

62. Shirk, Susan L., “Recent Chinese labour policies,“. 575–90Google Scholar; gives many details on recruitment, wages, and bonuses in China today.

63. Job mobility disappeared 25 years ago with the socialization of the economy. It is practically impossible to change one's place of work, once assigned to a job.

64. Cui Quanhong, Sihua luntun, No. 1.

65. Qimeng (Enlightenment), undated; translated in JPRS, 73,987 (9 August 1979), p. 69.

66. In RMRB, 29 June 1981, p. 1, 10 provinces were reported to have given employment to all those looking for work in 1979, and that 14 other provinces would do the same in 1980.

67. Yonghe, Kang, “Zhongguo chengzhen de laodong jiuye,”. 18Google Scholar;

68. Nihei, Yuko Akiyoshi, “Unemployment in China,”. 15Google Scholar;

69. Article byLu, Lin, Dongxiang (Trend) (Hong Kong), No. 12 (16 09 1979), p. 39Google Scholar;

70. According to announced plans, the size of the People's Liberation Army is to be reduced by more than one million by 1985.