Op-Ed Contributors

More jobs, better society

By Ding Jin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-14 08:19

Official data show that during the 9th Five-Year Plan (1996-2000), a GDP growth of 1 percentage point created 900,000 jobs. But by 2006 and 2007, the number had fallen to 500,000.

Now that China's economic structure and employment situation have undergone a change, the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) should accord top priority to job creation and make employment growth the primary target of its economic development.

China is the most populated country in the world with rich human resources. Demographers estimate its population will continue to grow until 2032. At present, the country's total working-age population is about 770 million, five times the labor force of the United States. And even though it is expected to create 6.3 million new jobs this year, compared to only 300,000 by the US, its total labor force will continue to exceed the demand for a long time.

According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the country's urban unemployment rate was 4.2 percent at the end of June, with 9.11 million urban residents registered as unemployed. This, along with other important factors, should make job creation a high priority on China's economic development agenda.

In the initial days of reform and opening up, China strived to develop labor-intensive industries to capitalize on its supply of low-cost labor, leading to fast national economic growth and high rate of employment generation. But during the late 1990s, it became highly dependent on investment and exports for growth and neglected the role of consumption, one of the three major forces driving economic growth.