Beijing began to build its unemployment monitor and forecast system on December 15, which includes five sub-systems as an unemployment information index, unemployment information survey statistics, a model for unemployment monitoring and forecast, prepared measures for unemployment in emergencies and an expert committee for unemployment monitoring and warning.

The system will provide advice on government operations and how to issue relevant policies once large-scale unemployment occurs. 

An official with the Beijing Bureau of Labor and Social Security said the system would play an active role in forecasting the unemployment situation, understanding social responses to the problem of unemployment and finding factors affecting social stability.

To ensure that the system be a scientific, advanced and practical one, it will be jointly built by the Economy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission and the Institute of Population and Labor Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The system will be built in three phrases. The first phrase is from July 2003 to the end of the year. The task is to determine research content and frame, organize a research force and start research; the second phrase will cover the whole of 2004 and needs to finish the research of all five sub-systems, and then combine them to build the overall system and begin the testing; the last phrase will begin from the start of 2005 and end by July 2005. The system will then undergo overall checking and be put into formal operation.

(China.org.cn by Feng Yikun and Daragh Moller, December 24, 2003)