The Chinese 37throng the day-labour markets
which have become features of
so many poorer Chinese cities.
The xiagang and partly-idled
state workers largely explain
the difference between China’s
official unemployment estimates,
which still hover around 4 to 5
per cent, and the much larger
estimates (15 to 20 per cent) of
many international observers.
When thinking about those numbers, by the way, it is also
worth bearing in mind that during the Great Depression in
the United States, US unemployment was approximately
23 per cent.
Again most foreign businesspeople, active in China’s
booming south-east and central coastal regions, will find
the xiagang and semi-idled state workers far off their daily
radar screens. But it is worth remembering that China has an
enormous ‘rust-belt’ running from the once-proud industrial
centres of Manchuria in the North-east, through to cities like
Taiyuan, Wuhan and Chongqing.
The Floating Population
What most foreign businesspeople will see up close is China’s
‘floating population’, the estimated 140 million or so rural
Chinese who have left their villages and crowded into the
coastal boom towns searching for higher-paying jobs.
China’s restrictions on personal mobility have lightened
considerably in recent years, but ‘floating population’
migrants still live without hukou, the residence permits
that ensure access to schools, healthcare benefits, housing
subsidies and other urban amenities for official residents.
As a result, ‘floaters’, even those who may have lived in
wealthy coastal areas for years and have relatively stable
jobs, often live in shantytowns on the edge of garbage dumps
and along filthy canals which provide their only running
water. These are the people who sweep the streets, shine
the shoes, do the dirty work on construction projects, and
As many economists have
observed, the irony is that the
more heavy state investment
cities got in the Maoist years to
build an economy dependent on
SOEs, the harder a time those
cities have had readjusting to
a market economy since 1979.
All these millions of idled and
semi-idled worker are another
major source of current and
potential unrest, and of worry for
the government.