Category Working in China

Jobless rate increases to record high in Taiwan

TAIWAN’S jobless rate hit a record high of 6.1 percent in July, authorities said yesterday, as new graduates entered the job market and started to look for work amid a recession.

A total of 663,000 people were unemployed, up from 647,000 in June. It was the third straight month Taiwan’s unemployment rate hit a record high.

The loss of temporary jobs was another factor for rising unemployment, authorities said.

Taiwan’s economy contracted 7.5 percent in the second quarter, and the government has predicted gross domestic product to shrink 4 percent this year.

A devastating typhoon this month has resulted in more than US$2 billion in farm and property damage, but its impact on the economy will be offset by huge government reconstruction spending, officials said.

Taiwan approved a NT$100 billion (US$3 billion) rebuilding fund to be spent over the next three years.

China sees job growth

China announced Wednesday there was a recovery in its job market in the first four months of this year with 3.65 million urban residents finding new jobs.

Noting the improvement, announced by the Chinese Cabinet, Yang Weiguo at Renmin University of China told the China Daily the short-term measures instituted to counter the employment pressures have been adequate. He said China now must create jobs that meet the needs of development.

The measures taken by the government to boost employment include expanding domestic consumption, reducing enterprises’ tax burden, encouraging graduates and migrant workers to be self-employed and setting up vocational training.

Xinhua reported China’s urban jobless rate stood at 4.2 percent at the end of 2008 with 8.86 million on the unemployment rolls.

The government plans to allocate $6.13 billion this year for creating jobs, up 66.7 percent from last year, the State Council said while warning the country still faced a tough employment problem because of labor oversupply and economic structural issues.

The employment situation remains especially grave for college graduates, whose numbers are expected to swell to more than 6 million this year, even as 1 million graduates from last year are still trying to find jobs.

China’s employment situation improving

China’s employment situation is improving. That’s the message to come out of the State Council’s meeting on Wednesday. But the top administrative body also acknowledged that the situation is still severe as the country’s economic recovery is not yet secure. It also produced new measures to safeguard jobs.

Premier Wen Jiabao chaired the State Council’s regular meeting, which focused on employment. The central government said new jobs so far this year exceeded 3.6 million by the end of April and migrant workers are returning to factories. It added the country’s job situation has made a turnaround from the slide seen in the forth quarter of last year.

But the State Council admitted it’s not yet clear what the full effects of the global financial crisis will be for China and that uncertainties remain in its recovery. It cited fewer new jobs and a higher jobless rate compared with 2008. The State Council also said a 42 billion yuan special employment fund in the central budget should be put in place as scheduled. That’s 67 percent more money than was allocated last year.

Regarding the creation of new jobs, the government pledged to bolster private economies, which always provide the largest pool of employment. It also said that various industrial development plans should focus on job creation.

College graduates, migrant workers and low-income families will get more help. And the government will offer training programs for all kinds of people, from migrant workers to graduates. The government called for improved job center services and will now offer subsidies to interns serving in central and western China.

Since the second half of 2008, China has implemented various measures to boost employment. And now, the State Council said it would redouble efforts to help people ride out the economic downturn.

China to create 3 mln jobs in light industry

BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) — The State Council, China’s Cabinet, Monday announced that it would endeavor to create 3 million new jobs in light industry in the coming three years by boosting domestic demand.

The State Council in February unveiled initial plans to boost light industry in a bid to buoy the economy together with the 4-trillion-yuan (586 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package presented in November and nine other specific industry stimulus plans including petrochemicals, textiles and other sectors.

The General Office of the State Council presented the detailed light industry stimulus plans Monday on its Chinese website www.gov.cn.

The government would give financing support to small and medium-sized light industry companies with good development potential in a bid to create more jobs, according to the plan.

The industrial output of the light industry stood at 2.62 trillion last year, accounting for 8.7 percent of GDP. Total exports reached 309.2 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 21.7 percent of the national total last year.

The production volumes of more than 100 types of Chinese light industry products, including home appliances, plastics, furniture and others were the world’s highest.

The industry employed around 35 million workers by the end of 2008.

Chinese light industry has felt the pinch from the global economic downturn and waning export demands.

Since Feb. 1, an estimated 900 million Chinese rural residents were eligible for a rebate of 13 percent on the prices of home appliances, in a move by the government to boost domestic sales of light industry products.

These products include color TV sets, refrigerators, freezers, mobile phones, washing machines, computers, water heaters, motorcycles, air conditioners and others.

“China will beef up efforts to bolster innovation and industrial upgrading of the light industry, aiming to foster 10 light industry conglomerates whose annual sales will exceed 15 billion yuan,” according to the plan.

In addition, the government wants firms across the country to make existing facilities and production processes more environmentally friendly.

The government ordered companies to improve the light industry’s products mix and reduce its pollutant discharge. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) must be cut by 10 percent or 255,000 tonnes by 2011 from the 2007 level. Waste water discharge will be reduced by 29 percent, or 1.95 billion tonnes by 2011 from the 2007 level, according to the Monday’s plan.

“China would eliminate outdated production capacity of 30 million units of low-efficient refrigerators and freezers, 600 million units of incandescent bulbs and others,” the plans stated.

The government will also step up efforts on improving product quality and is scheduled to formulate 450 new industry standards by 2011 in areas including food additives, meat products, wine making, dairy products, beverages, furniture and others, according to the plan.

1.24m college students to graduate jobless this year

About 1.24 million Chinese college students will graduate without jobs that require their qualifications this year, Tian Chengping, head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, has warned.
A total of 4.13 million students graduated from higher education institutions this year, 750,000 more than last year, said Tian.

Tian said the government had set up a mechanism to provide guidance and training for unemployed graduates.

Only 22 percent of China’s new jobs last year were for college graduates, according to a ministry study of 114 urban labor markets.

Tian said the country should create more jobs in the process of economic development and urged college graduates to work in grassroots units and undeveloped areas where they were most wanted.

With an average 10 percent annual economic growth over the past two decades, China was no longer able to accommodate surplus labor, with the official unemployment rate standing at 4.1 percent in the first nine months.

The demand for college graduates was down by 22 percent in 24 provinces and 15 major cities from last year, said a report issued by the Ministry of Personnel in March.

A survey showed 52.14 percent of bachelors considered lack of social experience as the biggest obstacle in finding work.

Colleges and universities should organize internships to prepare students for employment, said Lin Zeyan, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, at a forum this month.

The country needed to develop the service sector and promote small and medium sized enterprises to create more jobs, said Mo Rong, deputy chief of the Labor Science Research Institute of the ministry.

Bank of China to hire 10,000 college grads

Bank of China, the country’s third-largest lender, plans to recruit 10,000 college graduates to staff its expanding networks, its president said.

The hiring “will be the biggest among the country’s commercial banks,” the Beijing Times reported, citing Li Lihui, president of Bank of China.

The nation’s biggest foreign exchange bank will also expand its networks this year and some of the new recruits will be assigned to those outlets, Li said on the sidelines of the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The Beijing-based lender also said on Saturday that Temasek Holdings Pte, which owns 4.1 percent of the bank, would not sell its stake until at least June 30, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Chairman Xiao Gang.

Temasek, Singapore’s government-owned investment company, has 10.48 billion Hong Kong-listed shares of Bank of China.

Xiao also denied rumors that Bank of China will take its Hong Kong subsidiary BOC Hong Kong private.

Job market stable as companies fold

Nearly 1,000 enterprises in Guangdong province’s Shenzhen went under last year, but the local job market remained stable, Mayor Xu Zongheng said yesterday.

“The global economic meltdown has had remarkable impact on Shenzhen’s development, which largely depends on the overseas market for economic and trade growth,” Xu told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing National People’s Congress session in Beijing.

Up to 60 percent of Shenzhen’s foreign-funded enterprises are from neighboring Hong Kong, and most goods sent from Shenzhen to overseas markets are exported through the special administrative region, Xu said.

As many as 903 enterprises folded last year, leaving about 3 percent of the city’s labor force, or 90,000 migrant workers, jobless, Xu said. “More than 60 percent of these enterprises had to close their doors because they were unable to sustain business in the global financial crisis’ wake,” he said.

The rest – nearly 300 enterprises – were closed because they failed to meet environmental protection requirements, Xu said.

But the city last year approved up to 35,800 new enterprises, of which half are involved in the modern service and hi-tech sectors, Xu pointed out.

“These new enterprises have greatly helped create more employment for migrant workers, ensuring the job market remained stable,” he said.

About 4.5 million migrant workers left the city last year, but some 4.9 million have returned after the Spring Festival, Xu said.

“We attach great importance to migrant workers’ employment, and have used a series of measures to help them get back to work in the city since the end of last year,” Xu said.

These included free job markets organized by local labor authorities and enterprises, and free training courses for migrant workers, Xu said.

“Migrant workers who have been employed in Shenzhen for a certain period of time are allowed to apply for residence permits,” Xu said.

In another development, Xu said people with temporary residence permits in Shenzhen could also apply for Hong Kong tourism passes with unlimited entries from May.

Also, Shenzhen’s permanent residence permit holders would be able to visit Hong Kong with unlimited passes from April to enhance the two cities’ integration, Xu said. Shenzhen currently has 2.32 million people with permanent residence cards and 6.44 million with temporary permits, he said.

America’s loss is China and India’s gain: US study

WASHINGTON: Loss of tens of thousands of skilled immigrants to countries like China and India “is an economic catastrophe that will hurt US

competitiveness for decades to come”, says Vivek Wadhwa, lead author of a new study done at leading American universities.

Wadhwa and his team at Duke, Harvard and Berkeley universities uncovered several trends in their study on the plight of 1,203 skilled immigrants who came to the US from China and India to work or study and returned home:

* Most returnees originally came to the United States for career and educational opportunities. The majority of returnees cited career and quality of life as primary reasons to return to their home countries.

* The most common professional factor (86.8 percent of Chinese and 79.0 percent of Indians) motivating workers to return home was the growing demand for their skills in their home countries.

* Returnees also believed that their home countries provided better career opportunities than they could find in America.

* Most respondents (53.5 percent of Indian and 60.7 percent of Chinese) said opportunities to start their own businesses were better in their home countries.

* Most respondents (56.6 percent of Indians and 50.2 percent of Chinese) indicated that they would be likely to start a business in the next five years.

* Being close to family and friends was a significant consideration in the decision to return home, with many returnees considering their opportunities to care for ageing parents to be much better in their home countries (89.4 percent of Indians and 78.8 percent of Chinese).

* Most of the Indian and Chinese immigrant subjects who returned to their home countries were relatively young (in their low-30s) and were very well educated. Nearly 90 percent held master’s and PhD degrees, primarily in management, technology or science.

* Immigrants historically have provided one of America’s greatest competitive advantages. Between 1990 and 2007, the proportion of immigrants in the US labour force increased from 9.3 percent to 15.7 percent, and a large and growing proportion of immigrants bring high levels of education and skill to the US.

* Immigrants have contributed disproportionately in the most dynamic part of the US economy – the high-tech sector – co-founding firms such as Google, Intel, eBay and Yahoo.

* In addition, immigrant inventors contributed to more than a quarter of US global patent applications. Immigrant-founded US-based companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in revenue in 2006.

1 million graduates to get job training

China will launch a graduate trainee program for one million unemployed college graduates in three years, according to a circular issued by the general office of the State Council on Sunday.

The program did not suggest a fixed length or pay scale of the training, but the circular demanded local governments and organizations which provided training to offer basic living subsidies to the trainees.

The government would build training bases for the program with responsible employers, and employers are encouraged to recruit graduate trainees, said the circular.

Besides the trainee program, the government would also enhance technical training for graduates from vocational schools with a “double certificates” program.

According to the program, schools would help the students get vocational qualification certificates when they leave school, in addition to their graduate certificates.

China had about 1.5 million unemployed college graduates by the end of 2008, registering an unemployment rate of 12 percent, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in the Blue Book of China’s Economy (2009) last December.

Resume helps migrants too

More rural migrant workers should learn how to use resumes to enhance their job-seeking missions, says an article in Dazhong Daily. The following is an excerpt:

At a recent job fair in Wuhan, Yu Bo, a 41-year-old rural migrant worker, used a carefully designed resume, rarely used by his peers, to win the hearts of recruiters.

Yu designed his resume as fashionably as college graduates usually do – he put into a file holder all the sheets that describe his work experience, skills and talents, achievements, and various types of certificates and diplomas. A secondary technical school graduate as Yu is, he left a deep impression on recruiters.

Usually, resumes seem to be the exclusive tool for college graduates to find jobs and few migrants have ever used resumes to boost their chances of being hired. Yu’s innovative action has set a good example for his peers.

Rural migrant workers have long been the disadvantaged group in the job market – they don’t dress up for job fairs and don’t expect too much about working conditions and payment; they lack confidence and have few skills to sell themselves to the market.

Today’s rural migrant workers are no longer only working with their muscles. They should rely more on their brains. Resumes are an effective tool for them to show off their talents and past achievements to their would-be employers