Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Help Wanted

Despite rising growth numbers and a booming stock market, China's jobs situation looks a lot like the rest of the world's.

From AFP:

Image from AFP of a jobs fair in Beijing

BEIJING — China Tuesday warned of a "grave" situation in the jobs market with millions of graduates and migrant workers yet to find work as companies continue to struggle with the effects of the global slump.

"China's current employment situation is still grave and the pressure for job creation remains large," said Wang Yadong, a senior official at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security's employment section.

"To make things worse, the impact of the international financial crisis has not yet bottomed out and a lot of companies are still facing business difficulties, posing big unemployment risks," he told reporters.

Wang said around 147 million migrant workers had moved to cities for jobs by June but more than four million had yet to find one.

Moreover, three million university graduates, including those who had left last year, were still unemployed, he said.

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It's disconcerting to see that the non-elites of the world are the ones who are still feeling the brunt of tough times these days. While the people in the above article look for something to do with themselves, the wealthy and those who've gotten in on the stimulus money are bankin' it playing the stock market.



Funny how the world works.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah its frustrating man. I remember when I was a little kid and first learning about history and thinking about how horrific the world's past was. I remember thinking how lucky I was to have been born past those times and how everything would be better and better, year after year. I look back on that little cherub and laugh. Naive little fool. History does indeed repeat itself and their seems to be a constant balance between those who want change for good, for the whole, even at their own expence and those who are worried about one thing and one thing only..... having more than the other guy.

Mark said...

I feel like my generation is a funny one.

Being born in 1983 and spending my formative years in American suburbia of the 1990s, life was a booming little dream world!

Then, during my third week of college when I was 18 years old, 9/11 happened.

The next few years sucked (in terms of what was going on in the world... my college life was great).

And then when I'm a young adult living in China, the economy collapses and Barack Obama is elected president.

I'm sure every person could produce a similar history of their life compared with what happened in the world. Interesting stuff to think about though.

Anonymous said...

I manage a small factory in the east of the country and have been having trouble finding employees for the workshop. Many factories in my area haven't been successful in finding people. If you go around you can see all the wanted ads. So where are all these migrant workers? Maybe what they really need is someone to direct them to places where there's actually work. 10 opening in my place. hundreds around me.

On the other hand, what has been very easy to come by are skill-less graduates with high salary and job expectations. They are completely detached from reality. I've been hiring people without degrees instead - it's easier to invest half a year in training than taking care of a recent grad. Sad but true.

Mark said...

That's really interesting, Anonymous. Thanks for the anecdotal story.