Quarterly survey pinpoints job creators
( 2002-04-30 10:04 ) (1 )

A recent official survey found that wholesale and retail trade, food supply and the manufacturing and service industries have constituted the lion's share of job opportunities in China's urban areas.

The quarterly survey -- conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security -- revealed about 72 per cent of job opportunities were created by these industries in China's 78 major cities.

"Manufacturing and service industries have increasingly become key sectors for job seekers," said Wang Dongyan, director-general of the ministry's Information Centre.

In the labour markets of the surveyed cities, about 22.61 per cent of all vocations for the first quarter of 2002 were provided by manufacturing industry. This is 4.81 percentage points higher than the last quarter of 2001.

The service industry contributed 18.21 per cent of all jobs and this represents a rise of three percentage points on the same period last year.

The survey also found that private and share-holding companies are other key job creators.

Private enterprises created nearly 30 per cent of jobs while the share-holding companies generated 24 per cent, according to the ministry's survey released on Monday in Beijing.

Ministry spokesman Xin Changxing said the situation is in line with China's industrial development policy, in which the government has made priorities of the service industry and private sectors.

The development of China's private economy started in the early 1980s and grew at an annual speed of 20 per cent - faster than the growth rate of the national economy's 9.5 per cent over the past two decades.

It is estimated that the share of the private sector in China's economy has reached 33 per cent, a little lower than the 37 per cent of the State-owned economy.

The survey also found that there are increasing numbers of jobless youths.

They accounted for 14 per cent of job seekers in the markets during the first two quarters of last year but this has jumped to 19.35 per cent for the first quarter of this year.

Liu Danhua, another official with the ministry, said more college graduates have exaggerated the jump.

China has increased its college enrolment by a big margin since 1999 and many students graduated last year.

Liu expressed concern that more college graduates are going to make jobs even more scarce.