Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum-2013-Chapter IV

Chapter IV: Employment Policy of Promoting Urban-Rural Integration and Poverty Reduction

 

Zhang Libin

Institute for Labor Studies,

Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, P.R.C.

 

Generally speaking, China has made progress resolving the survival and subsistence problems of farmers. However, the development and poverty problems regarding low income and low consumption are still serious. In the "China's Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Program (2011-2020)", the annual net income of 2300 RMB for farmers is determined to be the new national standard for poverty alleviation, based on which, the national poverty-stricken population would be 128 million, accounting for 12.7% of rural population. China has overall entered the middle-income development stage, during which promoting the integration of urban-rural development has become China's dominant strategy. Sparing no effort to solve the employment problem of rural labor force, especially in poverty-stricken areas, is the significant strategic measure to promote urban-rural integration and build a well-off society in an all-round way.

1. Current Employment and Income Situation of the Rural Residents in China

1) Status of the rural labor force resources

In accordance with the statistics of the long-form sixth national census, at the end of 2010, China's rural labor force was 512.1 million. This is 49% of the total labor population; the rural employed population is 393.62 million, taking up 55% of the total; the rural unemployed population is 4.83 million, accounting for 23% of the total; the rural economically inactive population is 113.64 million, constituting 38% of the total. The rural participation rate which is 78%, is higher than that of 62% in cities; the employment rate of the rural labor force is 77%, higher than that of 59% in cities; the rural unemployment rate is 1.2%, lower than that of 6% in cities; the proportion of the rural economically inactive population is 22%, lower than that of 38% in cities. The rural participation rate is 16% higher than that in cities and 18% higher than the rural employment rate, which indicates that the rural residents need to devote more than the urban residents to obtain means of livelihood.

Table 1: Employment statistics of population age 16 and above in villages

Units: 10 people, %

 

Age	Population at 16 and above	Economically active population	Employed population	Unemployed population	Economically inactive population	Labor participation rate	Employment rate	Unemployment rate
Total	51208905	39845266	39362371	482895	11363639	78%	77%	1.2%
16 to 19	3498189	1511868	1420832	91036	1986321	43%	41%	6.0%
20 to 24	5260533	4344256	4194670	149586	916277	83%	80%	3.4%
25 to 29	4039585	3699721	3638272	61449	339864	92%	90%	1.7%
30 to 34	3863984	3606214	3570596	35618	257770	93%	92%	1.0%
35 to 39	5070049	4778053	4742681	35372	291996	94%	94%	0.7%
40 to 44	5921006	5583997	5549913	34084	337009	94%	94%	0.6%
45 to 49	5110623	4753197	4726332	26865	357426	93%	92%	0.6%
50 to 54	3938439	3513749	3496922	16827	424690	89%	89%	0.5%
55 to 59	4418539	3715824	3700721	15103	702715	84%	84%	0.4%
60 to 64	3309758	2274999	2267059	7940	1034759	69%	68%	0.3%
65 to 69	2365669	1218096	1213697	4399	1147573	51%	51%	0.4%
70 to 74	1851058	540549	538192	2357	1310509	29%	29%	0.4%
75 and above	2561473	304743	302484	2259	2256730	12%	12%	0.7%

 

 

Data source: The Sixth Census Statistics in 2010.

In terms of the age structure, among the rural employed persons, those at 35 and above occupy 2/3, and those at 50 and above are around 30%. Among the urban employed persons, those at 35 and below take up 46%, and those at 50 and below are nearly 90%. The rural youth labor force outflow and the elder labor force still at work after retirement further widen the gap between the urban and rural development.

Table 2: Age structure of employed people in cities and villages (%)

 

	16- 19	20- 24	25- 29	30- 34	35- 39	40- 44	45- 49	50- 54	55- 59	60- 64	65- 69	70- 74	75 and above
Villages	4%	11%	9%	9%	12%	14%	12%	9%	9%	6%	3%	1%	1%
Cities	3%	12%	15%	14%	16%	15%	12%	6%	4%	1%	0%	0%	0%

 

 

Data source: Processed per the relevant data of The Sixth Census Statistics in 2010.

 

In accordance with the data of the long-form sixth census, at the end of 2010, among the 113.64 million rural economically inactive population, about 1/3 do household management and 1/3 lose the ability to work/ these numbers are far higher than the corresponding 21% and 5% in cities, which shows that the proportion of the labor force taken up by house-keeping in villages is higher than that in cities. Among the 4.83 million unemployed persons, those who don't work after graduation occupy 1/3 of the population, exhibiting that there is difficulty in part of rural youth's first transition from school to employment. Unemployment is at the root of poverty issues and the key to poverty alleviation is to promote the employment of those unemployed. Further developing human resources to promote employment of those with labor capacity among the economically inactive population is also an important way to relieve poverty.

 

Table 3: Proportions of the unemployed reasons for economically inactive population in national cities and villages (%)

 

	Studying on campus	Disablement	Retirement	House-keeping	Others
Villages	20%	32%	5%	33%	7%
Cities	25%	5%	38%	21%	6%

 

 

Data source: Processed per the relevant data of The Sixth Census Statistics in 2010.

 

Table 4: Proportions of the unemployed reasons for those unemployed in national cities and villages (%)

 

	No work after graduation	Out of work due to the employer	Out of work due to the employee himself/herself	Contracting land being expropriated	Retirement	House-keeping	Others
Villages	31%	6%	13%	3%	1%	21%	24%
Cities	20%	26%	18%	4%	2%	13%	19%

 

 

Data source: Processed per the relevant data of The Sixth Census Statistics in 2010.

 

In terms of the educational years of the labor resources, at the end of 2010, the educational years of the rural labor resources are 7.6 years on average while that of the urban labor resources are 10.8 years on average, 3.2 more than the former. With the huge urban-rural gap, it is very difficult to promote the rural labor force to improve the employment quality.

2) Situation of the rural households income

In 2011, the per capita disposable income and per capita consumption expenditure of the urban residents in China were 21810 Yuan and 15161 Yuan respectively. The per capita net income and per capita consumption expenditure were 6977 Yuan and 5221 Yuan respectively. From this, it can be seen that the income and consumption expenditure of urban residents are three times of that of the rural residents, and the rural residents spend only 2.19 US dollars on average daily.

In general, there are three living means: 1) the older who are engaged in agriculture, breeding and odd jobs, with many of whom work part-time; 2) the younger working in non-agricultural industries locally; and 3) those engaged in independent operation in counties are mostly farmers; besides, some are engaged in agricultural scale production management in villages.

In terms of the net income structure of the rural residents, among the household net incomes, 42% of them come from wages income and 46% from net income of household business. the household business income is from agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing only accounts for 36%. That is to say, 2/3 of the rural residents' incomes come from non-agricultural production management.

Per capita resources of China's farmers are low, which constrains their income growth. The per capita cultivated land in China is approximately 1/3 of the world average level and per capita water resources only 1/4. Since the management scale of the peasant households is small, the production costs of grain and many bulk farm-products such as cotton and oil plants are high. This causes high production costs and low net rate of return for most Chinese agricultural products. In order to increase farmers' income, during the industrialization promotion, urbanization should be boosted and the farmers' per capita possession of resources should be increased.

In terms of the relationship between employment and income, at the end of 2010, China's quantity of employment reached 715.48 million, wherein the rural quantity of employment came to 393.62 million, accounting for 55% of the total. There are still many agricultural employees in China's villages, occupying up to 37% of the employees in the whole society. Therefore, in order to boost poverty alleviation and increase farmers' income, the agricultural labor force must be transferred further.

3) Employment status of the rural migratory labor force

In accordance with the total statistics of the sixth census in 2010, China's agricultural census registered population is 934.71 million, up to 72% of the total population. Apart from the 625.12 million agricultural census registered populations, there are 309.39 million people in cities and towns who are still of rural registered permanent residence. This shows that there are a large number of rural populations living in cities and towns, among which most are rural labor force.

Meanwhile, in accordance with the situation of registered permanent residence, those having their permanent residence registered in other places are 260.94 million. those whose registered permanent residence are outside villages but inside counties (downtowns) amount to 90.37 million, and those whose registered permanent residence outside home counties but inside provinces reached 84.69 million, totalling to 175.06 million. Additionally, those whose registered permanent residence is outside provinces total 85.876 million. Among the population whose registered permanent residence is in other townships, those working and doing business amount to 117.73 million, occupying 45% of the total. The household registration situation shows that a large number of the rural labor force obtain employment in a cross-regional way.

A great quantity of the labor force with their permanent residence still registered in villages live in cities and towns, but they are not fully fitted in the cities. It is not conducive to the transfer of the rural labor force and the rural poverty alleviation unless they are fitted in the cities.

Additionally, in accordance with the "National Monitoring Report of Rural Migrant Workers in 2012" [1], the number of the national rural migrant workers is up to 262.61 million in 2012. This means that:

◎ The transfer of the rural labor force in central and western regions is insufficient, namely, among the rural labor force in eastern regions. The rural migrant workers occupy 54.9%, while in central and western regions, the proportions are 37.2% and 28.7% respectively.

◎ The ability of attracting workers in central and western regions is not enough. Specifically, in 2012, the rural migrant workers in eastern regions amounted to 169.80 million, 64.7% of the total;

◎ The quality of the rural migrant workers is still low, among whom, those who have a junior high school educational degree occupy 60.5%, those who have been trained for agricultural technology occupy 10.7%, those who have been trained for non-agricultural vocational skills occupy 25.6%, and those who have not been trained for none of the above occupy 69.2%;

◎ The professional level of the rural migrant workers is low;

◎ Many of the rural migrant workers are hired for a job;  

◎ The income level of the rural migrant workers is low;

◎ The rights and interests protection of the rural migrant workers is not satisfactory.

The working income of the rural residents who work outside their hometown is the most important source of income for the rural families. Helping rural migrant workers equally obtain employment is the key to the coordinated urban-rural development and rural poverty alleviation.

2. Policy Analysis of the Employment Promotion for the Rural Labor Force during China's Urban-rural Integration

1) Make innovations in the systems and mechanisms of urbanization and industrialization to promote employment of the rural labor force

China is now on the course of fast industrialization and accelerated urbanization, during which the employment quality of the rural labor force is extremely improved. This has occurred by means of system innovation, innovation of urbanization and industrialization modes and organization form of agricultural production. Firstly, during urbanization, the production factors have been re-grouped with industry centralized in parks, land developed by scale management and farmers' transition to citizens. Secondly, conduct the confirmation of the land ownership. Due to land management rights and consolidation, with the help of the market force, the rural production conditions have improved, and productivity enhanced industries broadened, and farmers' income increased. Thirdly, the farmers have developed planting and breeding industries, which promotes agricultural industrialization development and increases income of rural families.

2) Employment policies of the land-lost farmers

Since the 1990s, China has entered the fast urbanization stage, during which a great deal of land has been expropriated, engendering over 50 million land-lost farmers. To solve the employment and living security problems of the land-lost farmers, the State Council issued a document putting forward the requirements for "ensuring the full and timely payment in accordance with the laws of the land compensation fees, resettlement fees and ground attachments and young crops compensation fees". The relevant laws specify that all the fees for land expropriation shall be paid fully in time. The employment settlement methods of the land-lost farmers are generally as below:

◎ The land expropriation institutions should offer them jobs or the villages (towns) and keep them on as workers to promote the transfer from agriculture to industry;

◎ The government should give those within the working ages some land expropriation fees and resettlement fees, so that the they can seek jobs by themselves;

◎ For the economically inactive population outside of working age, the government neither offers them jobs nor gives them resettlement compensation fees when conducting the land expropriation.

3) Policies for promoting the employment transfer of the rural labor force

The employment transfer of the rural labor force is an important step to increasing farmers' income. Since the 1980s, the employment transfer of the rural labor force has developed from the farmers' spontaneous outflow to the labor economy development. The scale of the employment transfer of the rural labor force has been enlarged, and by 2012, 260 million surplus rural labor force have been transferred to cities and towns for employment. The proportion of the service income's occupying the farmers' per capita net income has been increased continuously.

The rural labor force who have obtained "Employment Transfer of the Rural Labor Force" enjoy the employment service and all the preferential policies of employment transfer, including free policy consultation in public employment agencies of all levels, vocational guidance and career placement service. Those taking part in the vocational training can take part in vocational training subsidy as specified. For the rural labor force with employment difficulties, they can receive an allowance. Those with entrepreneurial aspirations can enjoy the small secured loan policy.

The rural labor force receives employment transfer training, vocational training, entrepreneurship training, etc. For the rural labor force who takes part in skill training in non-agricultural industries, they can enjoy one-time vocational training subsidy for vocational training, vocational skills appraisal and entrepreneurship training subsidy.

4) Policies of developing household service industry for employment promotion

Since the household service industry is an important industry to attract rural migrant workers, the State Council established the joint conference system for inter-ministerial employment and introduced the guidelines specific policies to attract more laborers, especially the surplus rural labor force.

This encourages the surplus rural labor force, those with employment difficulty and college graduates to work and establish a business in the household service industry. For all kinds of household service agencies' hiring, signing labor contracts with and paying social insurance premium for those with employment difficulty, give social insurance subsidy as specified. For those with employment difficulty seeking jobs flexibly in the household service industry, give the social insurance subsidy as specified. For the rural migrant workers starting a business in the household service industry, college graduates and those with employment difficulty, there should be a "one package" service, such as practical guidance, entrepreneurship training, small secured loan, and personnel and labor archives storage.

These policies also strengthen employment services by:

◎Providing those working in the household service industry with free policy consultation, employment information, vocational guidance and career placement service;

◎Providing recommendation services for the recruiters in the household service agencies and the housekeeping personnel employed by families;

◎ Nationwide, integrating and enhancing the current labor bases;

◎Fostering and supporting labor brands of household services with local characteristics;

◎ Consolidating connections of the export regions and import regions;

◎ Promoting the organized labor export.

5) Policies for boosting employment through entrepreneurship of the rural labor force

Entrepreneurship is a source of employment. Rural entrepreneurship promotes the rural employment, and further increases income. The government attaches great importance to the task of boosting employment through creating new businesses, and supports related policies and measures.

Firstly, there are policies of taxes and capital, such as the preferential policies for small secured loans. In some areas, those with employment difficulty who are self-employed for the first time can enjoy the one-time entrepreneurship subsidy. Those engaged in individual operation and complying with the conditions are exempt from the administrative and institutional fees. For those who have entrepreneurial aspirations and participate in the entrepreneurship training, subsidies are available.

There are also policies for entrepreneurship services. Multi-divisional entrepreneurship service agencies and platforms have been established to provide "one-stop" entrepreneurship services in time, such as:

◎ Entrepreneurship training

◎ Entrepreneurship project recommendation

◎ Guidance from entrepreneurship service experts

◎ Entrepreneurship policy consultation

◎ Entrepreneurship simulation practice

◎ Small secured loan and follow-up services

The construction of incubation bases for entrepreneurship is boosted by full use of natural resources, geographical environment and advantageous projects in the form of rural cooperative associations. Efforts are also made to lower the entrepreneurship threshold by:

◎ Simplifying examination and approval processes for entrepreneurship;

◎ Establishing green channels such as joint examination and approvals;

◎ Building "one-stop" service;

◎ Providing personalized services so as to boost employment through new businesses.

6) Policies of the employment assistance's expansion to villages

In order to help those with unemployment, China established the employment assistance system and turned the key to mainly assisting urban laid-off workers. Firstly, they developed the special employment services for those with employment difficulty by providing special "one to one" instruction and, follow-up, and public welfare positions.

Secondly, formulate special employment assistance policies for those with employment difficulty. Those with employment difficulty are given priority to obtain a job through the government's investing and developing public welfare positions. It is the complete settlement measure for those with employment difficulty, the main way of assisting those with employment difficulty for a new job, and the important means of employment assistance system.

Thirdly, assist the zero-employment families. Provide suitable positions for at least one person of the zero-employment families and ensure "assist every newly emerging such household, eliminate the difficulty and stabilize the household situation". For the flexibly employed members of the zero-employment families, help them with the continuation of their social insurance relations, and implement the post allowance and social insurance subsidy to enhance the employment stability.

Fourthly, it is the employment assistance for disaster-affected areas. The specific policies include: bringing those with employment difficulty in the disaster-affected areas into the scope of employment assistance objects in accordance with the provisions, and giving priority to ensuring at least one person of the zero-employment families in the disaster-affected area. Those with employment difficulty who are participating in the related earthquake relief work shall be brought into the accredited scope of the current and new-developed public welfare positions in accordance with the provisions. The laborers in disaster-affected areas taking part in the vocational training in the areas or other regions shall be given one-time vocational training subsidy as specified; the laborers in disaster-affected areas obtaining a job in the supported regions shall be given the one-time single railway, highway or water transport (road) transportation subsidies; various enterprises (institutions) in the supported regions employing, signing labor contracts with, and paying social insurance premium for the laborers in disaster-affected areas shall be given corresponding subsidies in accordance with the real paid old-age insurance premium, insurance premium of primary medical treatment and unemployment insurance premium. Encourage the enterprises in the disaster-affected areas to restore the infrastructure like production, road, irrigation and water conservancy, give pairing-assistance for the project construction and provide the employment priority for the local laborers. The enterprises in the disaster-affected areas employing eligible laborers shall be given preference for fixed tax reduction or exemption, social insurance subsidy, small secured loan and interest subsidy policies as specified. The personnel engaged in individual operation in the disaster-affected areas can enjoy the exemption of related administrative and institutional fees such as management, registration and licenses for 3 years. For the individually-owned industrial and commercial units opening businesses again after the interruption as a result of the disaster, small secured loan shall be given for support as specified.

7) Polices for the grass-roots employment of the college graduates

In order to encourage college students from western regions and the relevant departments successively introduced a series of policies for promoting the college students' grass-roots employment, including the "three supports and one assistance" plan. This includes the ad hoc post plan for school teachers at the rural compulsory education stage, and recruiting college graduates to work in villages, college students serving the west as volunteers.

To encourage and guide the graduates to work in rural areas, the government issued some preferential policies. Firstly, provide employment subsidies to social management posts in the grass roots and public service posts. The graduates taking part in the project shall be given living allowance and provided with relevant social insurance. Secondly, provide tuition and student loan compensation. Thirdly, provide preferential policies for selection and recruitment: those within the "three supports and one assistance" plan who are qualified after the service term and register for the examination of civil servants in party and government organs can enjoy the preferential policies of liberalizing signing conditions and increasing points, and be recruited on equal conditions; the teachers of ad hoc posts complying with the corresponding requirements can be recommended for reading for the education master without examination as specified; the teachers of ad hoc posts are encouraged to remain at the local schools after 3 years' employment term, and provided with jobs and the treatment of integrating their salaries into the unified local fiscal system scope so as to ensure their enjoyment of the benefits as equal as the local teachers. The country have decided to select 100,000 college graduates to work on the "three supports and one assistance" plan in next five years since 2011.

8) Policies for the employment ability promotion of the rural labor force

Attaching great importance to the employment ability improvement of the labor force, the government has introduced a series of significant guidelines and specific policies and measures, generally as follows:

◎Adhere to the principles of the coordinated urban-rural development, employment orientation, skill-based development and lifelong training.

◎Develop primary skill training mainly for the rural laborers of employment transfer, provide them with a skill for seeking jobs; for the young labor force mainly comprising fresh senior and junior high school graduates who stop going further study in cities and villages, encourage them to join the labor preparation system training for 1-2 semesters to improve their skill levels and employment ability. The laborers with employment requirement and training desire in cities and towns participate in the employment skill training or entrepreneurship training. They can obtain the primary and above professional certificates if they are qualified after training and pass skill appraisal, and then as specified, they shall be given the training subsidy and one-time professional skill appraisal subsidy; the enterprises training new recruited laborers who comply with the vocational training subsidy requirements shall be given certain training subsides as specified. The fresh senior and junior high school graduates who stop going further study in cities and villages and take part in the labor preparation system training shall be given training subsidies. Meanwhile, give certain living subsidies to the rural trainees and those living in poor families in cities.

◎Special vocational training plans shall be introduced during the international financial crisis of vigorously developing the skill training of the on-the-job rural migrant workers and enterprise employees with economical difficulty. The enterprises hiring, signing labor contracts of over 6 months with and providing vocational training for the rural laborers who come to cities for a job shall be given certain vocational training subsidy; the rural "surplus young labor force" who join the labor preparation system training and get the primary and above professional certificates shall be given training subsidy, so as to gradually implement free labor preparation system training for the rural young labor force; the entrepreneurship training of no less than 10 days shall be provided for the rural laborers going for a job in cities and the returned rural migrant workers with entrepreneurial desire and certain entrepreneurship conditions.

◎Formulate special training plan for rural migrant workers and by 2015, make efforts to provide more than once skill training for the rural migrant workers with training needs, help them master one practical skill fit for the employment needs; set down special training plans for different groups such as the rural laborers intending to transfer to non-agricultural industries, the "surplus young labor force", and transfer of rural laborers far and near have been formulated as well as the policies for the implementation of the state stipends for secondary vocational education and free tuition, so as to make the rural labor force complying with the conditions, especially the junior and senior high school graduates who cannot go further study receive the secondary vocational education, and then gradually implement the free labor preparation system training for the rural young labor force; the country makes overall arrangements of the rural migrant workers' training funds and gives appropriate subsidies to the local training; give full play to the role of enterprise training to promote employment.

9) Policies for safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of rural migrant workers

Attaching great importance to the rural migrant workers' employment, in 2006, the government founded the Migrant Worker Affairs Office of the State Council and introduced a series of documents entitled Opinions of the State Council on Solving the Problems of Migrant Workers for the final purpose of promoting rural migrant workers' citizens. The improvement of a labor recruitment management system is the important guarantee for the construction of the urban-rural integration labor market. In terms of the rural migrant workers' employment promotion, emphasis shall be mainly laid on continuously strengthening the rural migrant workers' rights and interests, through the following: 

◎Improve the labor recruitment management system of enterprises and bring the task of employees' rights protection into the government's target appraisal system.

◎Strengthen signing labor contracts by supervising and instructing different kinds of employers to sign labor contracts with the rural migrant workers according to the laws.

◎Establish pay deposit system to prevent back pay, and repress the behavior of being default on the rural migrant workers' wages from the source. Investigate the cases and give corresponding punishment in accordance with the laws

◎Strengthen the team construction of labor security supervision organizations, compressively carry out the labor security supervision system with labor security grid management. Extending the labor security work to all the employers in every community (village), creating stable employment environment and absorbing more labor force in cities with stable jobs, gradually boost the entity construction of mediation and arbitration institutions, strengthen the handling and prevention of labor dispute, and provide legal aid.

10) Effects and problems of the policies

The non-agricultural employment process dating from the rural labor force's employment transfer and developing township enterprises since 1980s plays an important impellent role of the poverty alleviation in villages. Also, the employment policies has been adjusted with the employment transfer process of the rural labor force by gradually relieving the limitation on the floating employment of the rural labor force at first, and then providing the employment services for the employment transfer of the rural labor force, continuously improving the ability and quality of the rural labor force's employment transfer. At present, it has entered the new stage of promoting and realizing the urban-rural integration of the employment policies. This is an epoch-making progress of China's employment policies, which plays a significant role of boosting the development of agriculture, farmers, and rural areas, quickening the transfer of the surplus rural labor force, alleviating poverty and increasing the farmers' income. However, it must be noted that, though the government has continuously introduced many employment-promoted policies, formulated the guidelines on solving the rural migrant worker problem, issued and implemented laws and regulations such as "Employment Promotion Law" and "Labor Contract Law" to boost the employment of the rural labor force, the urban-rural integration of the employment policies is far from realization, reflected mainly from the fact that the positive employment policy system has not realized the urban-rural integration.

The positive employment policy system is the grand integration of China's employment promotion policies, entitled the most advanced employment promotion policy system by the International Labor Organization, and finalized in the form of Employment Promotion Law. Article 20 of the Employment Promotion Law lays down that: conduct the employment policy of urban-rural coordination development, establish and perfect the equal employment system of urban-rural laborers, lead the surplus rural labor force to transfer employment orderly, and improve the employment environment and conditions of the rural laborers seeking jobs in cities; Article 22 specifies that the people's governments at all levels plan as a whole the employment of the township's incoming labor force, the employment transfer of the surplus rural labor force and the employment of unemployed workers; Article 31 points out that the rural laborers working in cities enjoy the equal labor rights as the urban laborers, and discriminatory restrictions shall not be imposed upon the rural laborers' seeking jobs in cities. However, the positive employment policy has been just extended to the rural labor force so far, still far from the equality of urban and rural areas. Among the policies and measures such as tax reduction and exemption, small loan, social insurance subsidy, employment assistance, employment services, fiscal investment and social security, only part of them, like small loan, tax reduction and exemption, social insurance subsidy, and employment assistance can be partially implemented in part of time periods and places aiming at part of rural labor groups in need of support; not only the rural labor force, but also the rural migrant workers cannot enjoy some employment support policies beneficial to all the urban laid-off and unemployed workers, such as social insurance subsidy. In addition, some policies are provided for local rather than rural migrant workers. Thus, it is still a long way to realizing the urban-rural integration of the employment policies.

3. Ideas and Advice for the Employment Policy System Construction for Urban-rural Integration

To solve the gap problem of urban-rural income and promote the employment of the rural labor force, it is imperative to boost the urban-rural integration compressively according to the fairness principle. It is essential to put the security of farmers' development right in the first place, and gradually establish the unified national labor market system and policies, so that the farmers have equal employment opportunities and fairly competitive market and law environment as the urban residents.

1) Adhere to the strategic ideas for employment promotion in economic development

The fundamental way to solve the rural employment of urban-rural integration is to promote employment by means of economic development: firstly, give special support to a group of enterprises which provide more jobs and make contributions to the regional economic development to boost the long-term nature and stability of the enterprises; secondly, in accordance with various labor security policies and regulations, through the way of positive guidance and compulsory error correction, further regulate the labor-intensive enterprises' employment behaviors, so as to protect the laborers practically, especially the employment and social security rights and interests of the rural (non-local) labor force; thirdly, meeting the social development's needs, create a set of posts that comply with the regional practicality of the emerging industries, like urban community management and high-tech service, to provide jobs for all kinds of personnel; fourthly, realize the local transfer of the surplus rural labor force in the positive construction of small rural market towns and bourgs by means of leading farmers to transfer to and develop in non-agricultural industries such as processing and manufacturing industries, and agricultural industrialization directions, like planting and breeding industries; fifthly, adjust and optimize agricultural and rural economic structure, prolong agricultural industry chain, improve the employment rate of farmers; sixthly, focus on the project development to effectively enhance the ability of absorbing employment.

2) Establish and perfect the policy system for the transfer of the surplus rural labor force

One important achievement in the over 30-year reform and opening up to the outside world of China is that more than 200 million surplus rural labor force have been transferred from villages. However, in the middle and long terms, there is still a great quantity of surplus rural labor force needing transfer. For this, there are the following recommendations:

◎To introduce the system of encouraging land transfer, under which according to the law and on a voluntary and compensatory basis, the land is transferred by farmers on their own so as to improve agricultural labor productivity and release the surplus rural labor force. The country shall encourage the establishment of land transfer market platforms in aspects such as finance and revenue to promote the land transfer normatively and orderly according to the law.

◎To make laws clearly stating the added funding specially for the employment policies of the rural labor force, the special funding for coordinating the employment policies in cities and villages for career introduction, vocational training subsidy, social insurance subsidy, post allowance, professional skill appraisal subsidy, small loan guarantee funds and interest subsidy, labor markets and labor security working platform establishment, etc. Extend the applicable scope and objects of the current policies. The special funding for overall planning of the urban-rural employment comes mainly from the farmers' land transfer revenue. By strengthening the force of policies' supporting employment, continuously narrow the gap on policy support between the urban and rural laborers so as to integrate urban-rural employment into social security step by step, creating a solid institutional environment for the rural migrant workers' employment.

3) Expedite the establishment and perfection of the policies and measures for rural migrant workers' citizenization process

The essence of the rural migrant workers' citizenization is to promote the equalization of basic public services for the rural migrant workers and urban residents. It is recommended to, firstly, bring the pre-school education of the rural migrant workers' children into the development plan for urban pre-school education in the import regions, and research and formulate the methods of the rural migrant workers' children's taking senior high school and college entrance examinations; secondly, governments at all levels and the housing construction sector shall bring together the housing problems of the rural migrant workers and urban residents into the local economic and social development plan and housing construction plan, solving the housing problems through various ways; thirdly, make sure that the rural migrant workers enjoy the basic medical and health services broadly consistent with those the other residents enjoy synchronously; fourthly, require that the urban employers shall, in accordance with the national policies, laws and regulations, sign labor contracts with and pay all kinds of social insurance premiums for the employed rural migrant workers; fifthly, strengthen the apanage management responsibility, and allocate the public service resources to the import areas of migrant workers according to the permanent population; considering that the basic public service equalization of rural migrant workers is a strongly overflowing problem with nationwide public product properties, the central government shall take certain responsibilities accordingly; thus, it is recommended that the central finance shall give a certain funding to the import areas of migrant workers via special transfer payment; sixthly, enhance the employment quality of the migrant workers comprehensively: create sufficient employment opportunities for the migrant workers by any means, make efforts to build fair employment environment, foster and improve the employment abilities, optimize and form rational employment structure, positively construct harmonious labor relationships, enhance the employment quality of the migrant workers comprehensively, and lay a solid economic foundation of the migrant workers' citizenization. By means of policy system and law enforcement inspection, solve the current violation problems of rural migrant workers' rights and interests in aspects such as occupational disease prevention, wages in arrears, and low signing rate of contracts.

 4) Establish and perfect the employment security policies for land-lost farmers

Resolving the land-lost farmers' employment and living security is an important realistic issue related to social equality, and justice, harmony and stability. Firstly, the land-lost farmers with labor ability who are unemployed and shall be deemed as the registered urban unemployed personnel and enjoy the employment support policies for the urban unemployed personnel. Secondly, the land-lost farmers with employment difficulty within the urban planning scope shall be recognized as the urban and unemployed personnel and enjoy the re-employment support policies as the urban and unemployed personnel. Thirdly, for the land-lost farmers with employment and re-employment potential, preferential policies shall be provided, such as tax reduction and exemption, small secured loans, social insurance public welfare post subsidies, career introduction subsidies and vocational training subsidies.; the funds for land-lost farmers enjoying the relevant policies of employment support and the free employment services shall be drawn out. Lastly, the multi-channel, multi-level, and multi-form targeted employment training shall be provided for the land-lost farmers with the working age.

 5) Establish and perfect the training system of the rural labor force

Recommendations include strengthening the system construction in aspects such as farmers' age features, industry development characteristics, farmers' skills upgrading needs and funding channels, form institutional training and investment mechanism, promote and form employment by development and with quality, so as to practically solve the low stability problem of the farmers' employment transfer. Firstly, there needs to be adjustment for training in accordance with the practical situations of the trainees. While continuing carrying out the current training items positively, further strengthen the integration of the training resources, unify the centralized management and use the funds intensively. Secondly, invest more in the vocational training work, and quicken the construction of public training bases for senior technical talents and technician colleges. Thirdly, make institutional arrangements for business creation support, construct the government-led business creation support center, integrate functions such as training, internship, incubation, credit and service, and establish a long-term mechanism for business creation promotion.



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[1] http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjfx/jdfx/t20130527_402899251.htm