With 13 million urban Chinese expected to be unemployed each
year, those most at risk of joblessness are asking why so many fall
through the country's unemployment safety net.
Whilst 24 million urban residents will be looking for jobs
annually in the future, there are likely to be only 11 million
available openings, said Minister of Labor and Social Security Tian
Chengping in an interview with the Party-owned Study
Times.
College graduates, rural migrant workers, the self-employed and
private sector employees are all facing a future with no job and no
support.
Workers paying into the country's unemployment insurance system
for more than a year can receive hundreds of yuan in subsidies if
made redundant, but jobless graduates do not benefit form this
"Professional training is what graduates need most," says Zhang
Youshan, director of the unemployment insurance office with the
Labor and Social Security Department of Shandong Province, calling for training to be
funded by the unemployment insurance fund.
This year, 4.13 million students graduated from institutions of
higher learning, but one in three will remain jobless a year from
now, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Migrant rural laborers also need better protection. Employers of
migrant workers are legally responsible for paying their
unemployment insurance premiums.
Despite government support, only 443,000 migrant workers
received unemployment allowances in 2004 out of around 120 million
nationwide, says He Ping, president of the ministry's National
Institute for Social Insurance.
Many migrant workers are unaware of these benefits and their
employers tend to avoid payments to reduce costs, says Zhang.
Experts have urged the government to tighten insurance payments
monitoring and to educate migrant workers as to their rights.
The self-employed are also overlooked when they seek
allowances.
"That should not be covered by unemployment subsidies, but is
hard to supervise due to inadequate management," says Zhang,
referring to people fraudulently obtaining benefits.
Many social security departments lack technical support for
information collection and management, making new job contracts and
insurance payment renewals the only means to recognize
reemployment, says Zhang Bin, director of the supervision office
for Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’s Labor and Social Security
Department .
Meanwhile, unregistered employees and the self-employed are
difficult to manage, since no individual accounts exist as of yet
for unemployment insurance.
China's unemployment insurance premiums are paid by enterprises
and institutions collectively along with individual payments by
their employees.
The low proportion of insured workers has been overshadowed by
the robust growth of the unemployment insurance fund, which
strengthened by 30 percent to 51.1 billion yuan (US$6.4 billion)
last year.
Of the 760-million labor force in China at the end of last year,
only about 100 million possessed unemployment insurance cover.
Private enterprises see unemployment insurance as burdening,
while many workers fear annoying their bosses by raising the
question, says Li Yuanzhi, deputy director of the unemployment
insurance office of the Shandong Labor and Social Security
Department.
Some local governments turn a blind eye to the situation as they
fear iscouraging investment or reducing private economical
development, says Li.
Meanwhile, employees of state-owned enterprises with steady
profits are reluctant to pay, considering unemployment unlikely and
the premiums merely a donation to the poor, Li says.
Experts say the payments should be adjusted to local commodity
prices and minimum urban living allowances. The law requires
payments to be less than the local minimum wage, but more than
urban minimum living allowances.
(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2006)