第1讲 Farmer Employment A Great Concern

Unit 17 Farmer Employment: A Great Concern In a traditional agricultural nation like China,farmers have alw ays been the mainstay of society.During the annual session of the Na tional People’s Congress last March,President Jiang Zemin pointed o ut that issues concerning agriculture,the countryside and farmers ar e of foremost importance to the country’s reform,opening-up and mod ernization process.“As long as we can effectively deepen rural refo rms,promote rural development and guarantee stability in the country side,we will be able to take the initiative in handling the overall situation,”Jiang added. Surplus Agricultural Population China has a current population of l.3 billion,but only limited c ultivated land,less than l33.32 million hectares.Its per-capita cul tivated land is 0.1 hectare,far below the global average of 0.25 hec tare.What makes this situation even more grim is that 666 counties o r districts,constituting 23.7 percent of the national total,fail to reach the critical mark of 0.05 hectare for per-capita cultivated lan d,established by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.Official statistics indicate an average annual loss of 626 700 hectares of cul tivated land in China between l990 and l994,coinciding approximately with the annual increase in the area of cultivated land.In light of current economic and technological conditions,China’s cultivated land reserves amount to just about 70.67 million hectares,of which a rable area accounts for l2.93 million hectares. However,while cultivated land continues to decrease,China’s po pulation continues to increase.This population increase is predicted to peak at l.5~1.6 billion around 2050.the increasing conflict betw een limited cultivated land and a large agricultural population has r esulted in a surprisingly large group of surplus labor. China’s rural labor hit 482 million in 2001,up 2.67 million or 0.6 percent over the previous year.It accounts for about 70 percent of the nationwide total labor supply.Regarding a rational ratio of l abor force to land,however, 100 million people are enough to work th e country’s current cultivated land.This means 300 million people s hould be moved off the land to non-agrarian industries. 中国的农村劳动力在2001年达4亿8千2百万人,而在去年一年就增加了267万人,约0.6%,占全国劳动力的70%。 Township enterprises,which thrived in the l 980s,added to the vitality of the rural economy and had once played a positive role in absorbing surplus rural laborers.For instance,they annually employe d an additional millions of workers between l980 and l995. However, t heir functions in this regard declined after 1995,due to changes in their personnel composition and rising labor costs.From then on,the annual average increase in their employees has remained around 900 00 0. A sample survey also shows that in 2001, only 9.2 percent of surpl us rural laborers who were transferred to non-agrarian industries in their respective provinces could find employment in local enterprises, a fall of 4.5 percentage points over the previous year. Since the annual seven-digit growth in the rural labor force far outstrips needs,the surplus agricultural population will become a more prominent challenge in years to come.The latest forecast says that the surplus labor foree awaiting transfer to non—agrarian indus tries is now l70 million.Experts caution that such a serious employm ent problem is likely to cause social unrest if it is not quickly an d effectively dealt with. Slow Farmer Income Growth In the wake of China’s socioeconomic development,the living sta ndards of both urban and rural residents have improved tremendously. Nevertheless, the gap between cities and the countryside has widen ed rather than narrowed since the mid-1980s,due to the slower developme nt of rural areas during this period. The living standards of farmers,especially those in central and west China, have lagged behind those of urban residents for many year s. In 1978, the ratio of differences between the income of non-rural and rural populations was 2.3 : 1. It fell to 1.7 : 1 in l984,but cl imbed to 2.65 : 1 in l999. However, the statistics were not reliable, as they omitted the off-payroll income of the urban population from h ousing,medical and social welfare.The gap would have been much wide r otherwise. The National Statistics bureau stated that rural residents’ net income grew by 4.6 percent in l997,down 4.4 percentage points over t hat to the previous year.These figures registered a consecutive decl ine over the next several years:4.3 percent in l998,3.8 percent in l999 and l.8 percent in 2000. This slow growth in farmers’ income ha s inevitably impede d their consumption Power, thus posing a major th reat to the sustained development and social stability of China. It must be noted that increased yields do not necessarily add to the wealth of farmers,due to constant fall in the prices of farm pro duce. Experts at the National Bureau of Statistics stated that the real solution to this problem is to promote agricultural modernizatio n geared to the objective needs of the new era by eliminating outdate d practices and developing high-efficiency agriculture in light of ma rket demands.However, agricultural restructuring can be only a gradual process.Elevating farmers’ income to an ideal level in the near future will be difficult,given the current area of cultivated land and price adjustment mechanisms, particularly national food secu rity. Moreover, agricultural restructuring and an increase in agricul tural productivity are anticipated to result in more rural laborer la y-offs in coming several years. As a result,raising the income of farmers will depend on the dev elopment of high-efficiency agriculture and the transfer of surplus r ural labor to non-agrarian industries.However,the age-old practice of hukou or the residence registration system,based on the rigid sep aration of town from country,is a hurdle to this Process. Countermeasures For nearly 30 years,the hukou-based employment system has disco uraged the free transfer of rural laborers.However,a turning point occurred in l984.That year,the state slightly relaxed control,thus allowing farmers to seek employment or do business in cities,using t heir own capital and making their own arrangements for meals.From th en on,the process of transferring surplus rural labors has picked up. 在近30年,以户口为基础的雇佣体系已严重打击了自由农村劳动力,尽管这一状况在1984年有了转变。国家在这一年放松了管理,允许农民进城找工作,或用自己的资本做生意,解决温饱问。从那时起,转变农村剩余劳动力的进程就开始了。 This resulted in the emergence of Mingong Chao,a tide of transit workers,which has grown tremendously in recent years and has placed great pressure on transportation and social security.Many local gove rnments have therefore tightened contro1 over the outflow of rural la borers and called on them to seek job opportunities locally after mov ing off the land.Measures have also been taken to curb the excessive growth in the number of people transferring from rural to non-rural r egistration. At present,the state has shifted its policy focus from “controlling the blind outflow of rural labor” to “encouraging and guiding their orderly transference.”To support its implementation,the establishm ent of a trans-regional employment certification system and reforms i n the residence registration system used in towns are underway. 而且各种措施也被应用与控制过多的由农村户口转为非农户口。目前国家的工作重心已由“控制盲目的农村劳动力流出”转为“鼓励并引导他们有秩序地转移”。为了执行这一政策,国家建立了跨地区就业体系,着手改革城镇户籍体系。 Since 2000,the state has abolished a group of irrational restric tions on farmer employment in cities,and has stepped up support refo rms in employment,social security,residence registration,education, housing and small town development, in efforts to integrate urban and rural labor markets and secure jobs for rural laborers. The number of transit workers is anticipated to peak over the nex t five years,with an annual increase of 8 million.Keeping this in m ind,the Chinese government has spared no efforts in reforming the co untry's residence registration and social security systems,as well a s revoking irrational regulations,to create a fair employment market. 在今后五年,劳动力转移将达到高潮,每年增长800万。中国政府将这一点铭记在心,在改革国家居民户籍登记及社会保障体系,废除不合理等方面不敢有丝毫松懈,以建立一个公平的就业环境。 A series of policy adjustments demonstrate that China has made su bstantial headway in reforming the outdated system of separating citi es and the countryside,and increasing employment channels for surplu s rural laborers.这一系列的调整措施证明:中国在改革旧的城乡分离的体制及为农村剩余劳动了靠托就业渠道上已经取得了很大进展。