Beijing mulls how to find jobs for workers laid off in fuel-tax reform
Woods Lee 8 December 2008
The central government is mulling how to re-employ 150,000 transport workers likely to lose their jobs as a result of a fuel-tax reform.
The redundancies, which some analysts estimate could reach as high as 300,000, are expected to mainly affect fee collectors and penalty ticket writers at toll gates and check points along highways, roads, waterways and at traffic depots.
Each year, they fill state coffers with 130 billion yuan (HK$146 billion) in tolls and traffic surcharges but the National Development and Reform Commission said last week that most of the funds would soon be raised via a fuel tax and that a large number of toll gates and fee-collection points would be shut down.
The system, effective from January 1, was expected to slightly boost revenues without increasing costs at the pumps because fuel prices would remain at their current levels, the commission said.
The State Council was soliciting public proposals on how to handle the redundancies, the Beijing Times reported. The Ministry of Transport appeared to be considering a few options. Those 50 and older who have worked for more than 30 years could apply for early retirement. The remainder could be employed in taxation departments or sent to other posts in the transport sector, the newspaper said, without elaborating.
Finding jobs will be tough, however, given the global economic slowdown. After 11.4 per cent growth in gross domestic product last year, the fifth annual double-digit increase in a row, the mainland’s economy has started to lose steam, with growth falling to 9 per cent in the third quarter of this year, down from 10.6 per cent in the first quarter and 10.1 per cent in the second.
Alarms are ringing that Beijing will face a tough task maintaining the 8 per cent growth rate needed to create enough jobs for the 20 million new workers who enter the workforce each year, a key to social stability.
Mainland exports have also fallen off sharply. Exports usually add 2 to 4 percentage points to GDP growth and analysts warn that could dwindle to zero this year and even drag down the overall economy next year. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for more than 60 per cent of economic output and provide about 80 per cent of jobs, have become the first to feel the pinch of the global downturn.
Thousands - especially in the Yangtze River and Pearl River Delta areas - are reportedly either closing because of sharply shrinking overseas orders or moving to Southeast Asia to seek cheaper labour, raw materials and lower environmental protection standards. Millions of migrant workers began packing up and heading home from October, almost two months earlier than usual.
By the middle of last month, Sichuan province , which usually supplied more than 10 million migrant labourers, had seen 280,000 go home, the provincial government-owned website Newssc.org reported.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted a 4.3 per cent unemployment rate for next year, largely unchanged. But analysts expected a grimmer market as the “urban registered unemployment rate” usually fails to count all jobless people in cities or jobless rural migrant workers.
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Beijing mulls how to find jobs for workers laid off in fuel-tax reform
Woods Lee
8 December 2008
The central government is mulling how to re-employ 150,000 transport workers likely to lose their jobs as a result of a fuel-tax reform.
The redundancies, which some analysts estimate could reach as high as 300,000, are expected to mainly affect fee collectors and penalty ticket writers at toll gates and check points along highways, roads, waterways and at traffic depots.
Each year, they fill state coffers with 130 billion yuan (HK$146 billion) in tolls and traffic surcharges but the National Development and Reform Commission said last week that most of the funds would soon be raised via a fuel tax and that a large number of toll gates and fee-collection points would be shut down.
The system, effective from January 1, was expected to slightly boost revenues without increasing costs at the pumps because fuel prices would remain at their current levels, the commission said.
The State Council was soliciting public proposals on how to handle the redundancies, the Beijing Times reported. The Ministry of Transport appeared to be considering a few options. Those 50 and older who have worked for more than 30 years could apply for early retirement. The remainder could be employed in taxation departments or sent to other posts in the transport sector, the newspaper said, without elaborating.
Finding jobs will be tough, however, given the global economic slowdown. After 11.4 per cent growth in gross domestic product last year, the fifth annual double-digit increase in a row, the mainland’s economy has started to lose steam, with growth falling to 9 per cent in the third quarter of this year, down from 10.6 per cent in the first quarter and 10.1 per cent in the second.
Alarms are ringing that Beijing will face a tough task maintaining the 8 per cent growth rate needed to create enough jobs for the 20 million new workers who enter the workforce each year, a key to social stability.
Mainland exports have also fallen off sharply. Exports usually add 2 to 4 percentage points to GDP growth and analysts warn that could dwindle to zero this year and even drag down the overall economy next year. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for more than 60 per cent of economic output and provide about 80 per cent of jobs, have become the first to feel the pinch of the global downturn.
Thousands - especially in the Yangtze River and Pearl River Delta areas - are reportedly either closing because of sharply shrinking overseas orders or moving to Southeast Asia to seek cheaper labour, raw materials and lower environmental protection standards. Millions of migrant workers began packing up and heading home from October, almost two months earlier than usual.
By the middle of last month, Sichuan province , which usually supplied more than 10 million migrant labourers, had seen 280,000 go home, the provincial government-owned website Newssc.org reported.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicted a 4.3 per cent unemployment rate for next year, largely unchanged. But analysts expected a grimmer market as the “urban registered unemployment rate” usually fails to count all jobless people in cities or jobless rural migrant workers.
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