Sources from Qingdao, Shenyang, Changsha and Chengdu show employment personnel in neighborhood services like garbage collection, house maintenance and electric appliances fixing, post delivery and security personnel are badly needed, which could create 2 million job opportunities. Right now, there are still 1 million people needed to fill jobs in these four cities.

Based on this result, it is estimated there are at least 15 million jobs in China's big cities with populations of over 500,000.

Experts say that some people have been made redundant from state-owned enterprises due to China's further economic reform and adjustment of its economic structure. This doesn't mean that these people though will be out of work forever as many laid-off workers can find jobs again. Of course, what is needed is to try to find some less skilled jobs than those needed by technology.

Neighborhood services require manual labor and personnel who are largely untrained. In many cases this will suit those that have been made redundant.

Jinan City Sets up 43 Employment Service Centers

Since last April, Jinan City in Shandong Province has spent 8 million yuan setting up 43 employment service centers.

Employment service centers boast many functions including labor resource management, registration, and statistics, employment information collection, job availability, and employment policy implementation.

The city stipulated that employment services should open their administration, making their operation transparent and creating a system with greater responsibility.

Ji Shaolin, section chief with Jinan Employment Management Office, said, "The employment service centers help related departments find out personnel information. Meanwhile, the centers help a great many redundant people find work. Over the past year, the centers in the city have arranged 2,500 jobs."

Over 200 Neighborhood Committees Open Labor Consulting Services in Jinan

Yan Xiucheng, 62, director of Dexing Neighborhood Committee, Huaiyin District of Jinan City, reads newspapers everyday to search for classified ads so that she can help redundant neighbors find new work.

In recent years, the committee has rented out houses, supermarkets, amusement places and restaurants to un-waged people -- helping over 100 people find jobs again.

Ji Shaolin, section chief with Jinan Employment Management Office, said, "Over 200 neighborhood committees have set up labor consulting services like Dexing Community. Almost all the laid-off people have got new jobs with the help of these committees."

Most of the residents in Dingzishan neighborhood community are laid-off workers from a cement factory in Jinan City. Among them, over 300 people live in difficult circumstances. Director Sheng Li said, "The neighborhood committee has tried every way to help these people find jobs."

The committee allows that houses facing the street can be reconstructed into stores, selling articles of everyday use, cakes and breakfast, or reconstructed into barbershops. Most of the taxes are free and moreover, the committee has recommended over 30 laid off women to work in dairy firms.

(China.org.cn by Liu Yuming, March 29, 2003)