The
All-China
Women's Federation said Tuesday it will help train and employ
more than 6 million laid-off women by 2005 and most of them should
find an income by serving in the community.
Gu
Xiulian, vice-president of the federation, told a national
conference there were 80,000 community-based service providers in
China, which is expected to expand further in the near future.
All the providers were set up by or with the help of the women's
federation at different levels.
"As many as 40 percent of the laid-off women who have found jobs
again are working in their communities,'' Gu said.
China's registered urban unemployment rate reached 4 percent last
year, with more than half being women.
Against a backdrop of supply outstripping demand in the country's
job market, women are in a disadvantageous position as a whole.
Statistics from the national women's federation indicate the
employment rate of women aged between 18 and 49 has decreased by
16.2 percentage points between 1990 and last year.
Although community services such as household cleaning and
baby-sitting were the choice of most laid-off women workers, who
may be considered too old or without the skills necessary for other
employment, it took the federation to persuade them to get
involved.
And the effort of the federation has paid off with more laid-off
women agreeing to serve in the community.
One example is Xiao Rendong, who was a former worker with the
Harbin Steel Rolling Mill in Northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province.
Xiao lost her job with her husband in 1996 after working at the
mill for nearly 20 years.
"Thinking of myself working at other people's homes and obeying
other people's orders was unbearable to me at first,'' Xiao
said.
But she considers herself lucky she eventually took the "brave
first step'' after advice from her local women's federation, which
opened the door.
Xiao is now one of the busiest workers in Harbin, earning not only
satisfactory money, but respect with honest labor.
Gu
said the national federation will now spread the mechanism that has
helped Xiao through more lectures, more hotlines and more personal
consultations.
It
will also step up its occupational training this year, especially
in relation to community services, while launching a national
network in major cities to disseminate employment information among
laid-off women.
This is the way it hopes to help train and employ more than 6
million laid-off women in the next two years.
Women's federations should also provide more loans for qualified
laid-off women to start their own businesses.
Tuesday, Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo urged women's federations at
various levels to help more women get involved with the development
of the country's market economy and again find their position in
society.
Providing more jobs and re-employing more laid-off workers are
among major tasks of governments and women federations at all
levels, Wu said.
(China Daily February 19, 2003)