Expert: Fairer conditions for employment

Zheng Gongcheng, a National People's Congress deputy and professor at Renmin University, has spent years studying China's social security system and employment market. According to him, the government needs to improve the social security system in order to address the problem.

Since China's reform and opening-up in 1978, development of the social security system has not kept pace with rapid economic progress.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is reviewing the Law on Social Insurance, and is expected to pass it in 2009. Under the law, all workers will enjoy social insurance covering medical care and workplace injuries. Although the law will not produce immediate effects, it will help boost people's confidence to change jobs in the long run.

Professor Zheng said the nation should also adjust and upgrade the country's industrial structure. The government must decide which industries to support and which to run down. The 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus plan is an opportunity to support high-end industries that can absorb high-level workers, and eliminate low-end industries with high energy consumption.

A long-term plan should be put in place to tackle graduate unemployment. The government should work harder to remedy structural deficiencies, foster a fairer environment in job market, encourage pioneering spirits and give preferential treatment to students who choose to work in underdeveloped and rural areas. But only improvement in the basic social system can tackle the problem at source.

(China.org.cn by Chen Xia, February 16, 2009)