Propotion of skilled workers set to rise
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-04-28 17:05
About 22.8 million skilled workers will enter China's workforce in the next
five years, adding pressures to the employment market, a senior labor official
said here.
Hu Xiaoyi, vice minister of labor and social security said during a recent
visit to this capital of east China's Anhui Province that 8.9 million of the new
workers are expected to have advanced work skills.
Statistics with the ministry show 87.2 million workers in urban areas had
professional occupational certificates or skill qualifications, accounting for
33 percent of the 270 million total.
Hu said that by the end of China's 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010),
the proportion of skilled workers in the work force is expected to surge to 40
percent, or some 110 million, of whom 27.5 million will have advanced education
backgrounds or skills.
The ministry forecast that the employment pressure will continue with the
rising proportion of skilled workers including college students.
In 2005, 3.38 million students graduated from colleges and universities, a
20-percent increase from in 2004, while education authorities estimate 4 million
college graduates in 2006.
Those who will seek jobs in 2006 also include 2.7 million graduates from
secondary vocational schools, 2.1 million graduates from middle and high
schools, 700,000 ex-servicemen, 2.6 million former rural residents who now have
urban registered permanent residences, 1 million laid-off workers from
state-owned enterprises yet to be placed and 8.4 million registered unemployed
people.
However, China will create 9 million jobs in 2006 and resettle 5 million
unemployed laid-off workers, aiming to confine the registered unemployment rate
in urban areas to 4.6 percent.
Experts here say that a large labor force makes China competitive in labor
cost and attractive to foreign investment. However, it also enables
entrepreneurs to confine workers' salaries to a low level, leading to further
economic polarization.
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