from the converting-to-a-service-economy dept.
Bloomberg News reports
Cracks are starting to show in China's labor market as struggling industrial firms leave millions of workers in flux.
While official jobless numbers haven't budged, the underemployment rate has jumped to more than 5 percent from near zero in 2010, according to Bai Peiwei, an economics professor at Xiamen University. Bai estimates the rate may be 10 percent in industries with excess capacity, such as unprofitable steel mills and coal mines that have slashed pay, reduced shifts, and required unpaid leave.
Many state-owned firms battling overcapacity favor putting workers in a holding pattern to avoid mass layoffs that risk fueling social unrest. While that helps airbrush the appearance of duress, it also slows the shift of workers to services jobs, where labor demand remains more solid in China's shifting economy.
[...] "Underemployment is especially rampant at state-owned companies", said Zeng Xiangquan, a professor of labor and human resources at Renmin University in Beijing. "The government tends to overprotect them." That keeps laid-off workers from getting retrained and hired into new jobs in more thriving sectors like services or high-end manufacturing, Zeng said.
Related Stories
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament-steel-coal-idUSKBN16C00H
China will cut steel capacity by 50 million tonnes and coal output by more than 150 million tonnes this year, its top economic planner said on Sunday as the world's No. 2 economy deepens efforts to tackle pollution and curb excess supply. In a work report at the opening of the annual meeting of parliament, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said it would shut or stop construction of coal-fired power plants with capacity of more than 50 million kilowatts.
The pledges are part of Beijing's years-long push to reduce the share of coal in its energy mix to cut pollution that has choked northern cities and to meet climate-change goals while streamlining unwieldy and over-supplied smoke-stack industries such as steel. Speaking at the opening of parliament on Sunday, Premier Li Keqiang reiterated the government's plan to ramp up monitoring of heavy industry and crack down on companies and officials that violate air quality rules. "Officials who do a poor job in enforcing the law, knowingly allow environmental violations, or respond inadequately to worsening air quality will be held accountable," he said. "We will make our skies blue again."
Related: U.S. Quintuples Taxes on Chinese Cold-Rolled Flat Steel
China Is Grappling With Hidden Unemployment
China's Smoggiest City Closes Schools Amid Public Anger
China: Solar Installations Up 82 Percent in 2016; Coal Usage Down Again
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:38AM
China has developed into a service economy, but fear not. There are still underdeveloped continents to which manufacturing can be outsourced. Africa is mostly undeveloped, and Antarctica is almost entirely uninhabited.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:53AM
Interesting to watch, ain't it? I'm intrigued by what comes post-service-economy, myself. Eventually it'll all work out to who has the resources again but it's fun watching everyone try to pretend it's about anything else.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:56AM
Canada will win with all of its fresh water and low population density. Illegal Americaliens will be the scourge of Canada.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:20PM
Trudeau is going to build a wall, and get America to pay for it
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:40PM
Built out of Molson empties. Recycling!
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:41PM
Allow me to be the first to volunteer to empty all of the cans.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:58PM
Cans are for tuna fish. Good beer comes in bottles.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:14PM
Canned beer is known to be superior:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/it-appears-that-i-was-very-very-wrong-about-canned-beer/252970/ [theatlantic.com]
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-canned-beer-is-better-2013-8 [businessinsider.com]
http://microbrewr.com/cans-or-bottles-27-industry-experts-reveal-their-preference/ [microbrewr.com]
http://www.mossbergco.com/cannedcraftbeer/ [mossbergco.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:26PM
Bottles are acceptable in a crunch, but great beer comes in kegs.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:26PM
Note that's kegs - not "a keg"
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:43PM
...and it's served in portions like this [hofbrauhausnewport.com].
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday September 29 2016, @04:32PM
You've not lived until you've seen a buxom German barmaid bring 6x1 litre tankards in each hand across a crowded beerhall
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 29 2016, @07:31PM
Then I have lived. I confess what happened after those tankards arrived is hazy. There was a bit about people screaming Achtung! and a German shepherd chewing on my ankle.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:50PM
Communist China has a solid history of pretending when it comes to the economy. The Great Leap Forward, whereby every industry had to dramatically increase its output every year, was like that. My teacher was yanked out of college to go work in a lumber yard to help it make its quotas. They couldn't. So they resorted to carting the lumber they had finished back around to the front of the plant, running it through again, and double-counting it.
So it rings true that they're hiding their unemployment by keeping superfluous factories and labor forces on life support. But they're right to do so, because over the last 20 years every time Beijing doesn't do that and masses of workers are thrown out on the street, they do riot and threaten social order. In fact it was a strong wave of that sort of thing that gave rise to the Tiananmen protests.
China is not like other modern countries that have civil society and NGOs to help cushion economic dislocations. In China, when you're thrown out in the street with nothing, you really have nothing. Unless you have a large extended family that's doing well and can help you out, you're done. Chinese don't help strangers or anyone outside their danwei ("unit," meaning same office, school, team, etc). So if too many people are put in that same situation at once, civil unrest explodes out of nowhere.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:12PM
> Communist China has a ...
The number one way for someone talking about china to prove they should not be taken seriously is for them to call it "communist china." China hasn't been communist for at least 20 years now. The number of billionaires in China is second only to the number in the US. Anyone still using that moniker is either a propaganda tool of the chinese government or stuck in the past.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @06:19PM
Now, having said that, when it comes to China, the input of Phoenix666 (with him having lived there) is what I trust above anyone else who posts here.
China still has a "communist" party and, to get anything accomplished there, you still have to belong to "the party".
Phoenix666 also noted that, outside a danwei (collective), many Chinese people will be rudderless, so using their old terms, while not completely honest and accurate, gives an indication of what's going on there.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by zugedneb on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:35PM
Why are you so stupid?
Even if you are just a bot hanging around to make the matrix look real, you should not be so stupid...
You can not just denigrate a thousand year old civilization...
WTF, do you think that the communists, as organization, inherited some kind of dream scenario? They had no difficulties? They should just have provided guns, ammo, and gadgets to the people, and all bad things would have gone away?
Especially with your history of slavery and war, USA...
The only thing the commies done wrong was to drop 2 atomic bombs on the other side of the planet, I do agree with that.
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @03:06PM
So I'm pretty sure it was the capitalists who dropped two a-bombs... And yes you can criticize any culture no matter how great they were for thousands of years.
Your post has got problems, time to add another neural network to your logic processor.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 29 2016, @07:55PM
Your post is mostly incomprehensible, zugedneb, but no civilization is safe from criticism. And as a civilization you rather tend to negate the gravitas of your longevity when you stage stuff like the Cultural Revolution to eradicate said thousand-year old culture.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @08:39PM
You can not just denigrate a thousand year old civilization...
You're missing about three or so thousands of years.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Thursday September 29 2016, @12:56PM
So what do you prefer - someone with a university degree sitting at home collecting welfare cheques America style, or someone with a university degree working in a manual labor job in a factory China style? Underemployment != unemployment.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday September 29 2016, @03:02PM
The problem with underemployment is that pay does not rise to compensate for the shorter work-weeks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:44PM
pay rises are only necessary if you are ruled by a reserve bank insisting that inflation of prices is a good thing
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @05:05PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @02:59PM
...says Chinese–Texan research.
/article.pl?sid=16/09/21/0243256 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @06:31PM
It would be really nice if folks who frequent tech-related sites would learn to form a
proper hyperlink with proper link text.
Underemployment Can Lead to Creativity and Organizational Commitment, According to Study [soylentnews.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:16PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:17PM
And that's why we're losing manufacturing jobs.
You mean they're losing manufacturing jobs too? Maybe China needs to build a wall on their border with Viet Nam.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JNCF on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:40PM
Maybe China needs to build a wall on their border with Viet Nam.
Or Mongolia.
(Score: 3, Touché) by arslan on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:52PM
You're approaching this all wrong. You should suggest they hire Trump and make him their President. You know, 2 birds 1 stone...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @05:35PM
1) The Chinese leaders probably want him to remain in the USA as an example of why Democracy is crap and their way is better in practice. A scarecrow like him is probably easier to manipulate than the wicked witch of the west ;).
2) I think they expect a bit more from their leaders in China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Keqiang#Early_life_and_education [wikipedia.org]
If say Trump had memory problems it wouldn't really matter - he just makes stuff up anyway. And still will win votes from his supporters. Heck I think even the Chinese leaders expect more from themselves than that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @05:18PM
Same for when the robots take the jobs (think of the Chinese workers as the first batch of robots taking the jobs of the USA workers). If incomes drop, who will the robots be making goods for? That's why some people think the answer is Basic Income.
There's a limit to what a finite world can support. You can't have sustainable growth on a finite planet, at least not in "real stuff". So for most it might end up being subsistence living + virtual goods (there can be huge amounts of virtual goods without requiring lots of natural resources)- e.g. the masses get real bread, but mostly virtual circuses. Look how many people are already greatly entertained by virtual goods?