Stimulus package allows China to boost employment and create new jobs

Rural unemployment and poverty are on the rise in China, as in the aftermath of the global crisis migrant workers have returned to their rural homes and urban-rural remittances declined. But initial impacts of a very generous stimulus package are promising.

The Government has authorized a 4 trillion Yuan stimulus package (US$ 585.6 billion) to be invested in infrastructure and social welfare by the end of 2010. Public infrastructure got the biggest portion – 38 per cent of the total package – which went into railway, road, irrigation, and airport construction.

The second largest allocation, 25 per cent, was spent in the construction of low-cost housing and social safety net projects, especially in the Sichuan area, hard hit by the earthquake of May 2008. The central government’s fiscal spending programmes are likely to be followed by local governments, through programmes aimed at boosting local economic development (LED).

From January to August 2009, China has created 7.57 million new jobs accounting for 84 per cent of the 2009 target for job generation. During the same period, 3.57 million of laid-off workers were re-employed.

For more information on the job crisis and recovery in China, please read China’s response to the crisis (G20 country brief) and statistical update Economic slowdown led to job losses and real wage declines or visit the ILO Job Crisis Observatory.