Economic restructuring to reduce unemployment

SINGAPORE - China's ongoing economic restructuring may help cut its structural unemployment, said Song Li, an economist with China's National Development and Reform Commission.

Speaking at the 7th China-Singapore Forum in Singapore on Tuesday, Song said both the economic restructuring and the adjustment in the education system are expected to help alleviate the structural unemployment.

Some of students are expected to favor technical education rather than universities, if they see that it is easier for students of technical education to find jobs than it is for than graduates, he said.

Song, who is the deputy director of the Institute of Economics Research, the Academy of Macroeconomic Research, the NDRC, said that a recent survey with employers also showed that the demand for graduates are increasing, while the demand for cheap labor is decreasing.

Nevertheless, he said, "it will take time (for the technical education to be favored by more students)."

China added 10.24 million jobs in the first three quarters of the year, which is more than the full-year forecast. But the country has been experiencing a shortage of cheap labor in the recent several years, pushing up the wages for low-skilled jobs. Meanwhile, some of the students with degrees find it difficult to find the jobs they want.

Song also said that some of the industries that highly dependent on cheap labor are moving from China's coastal areas to places like Southeast Asia as the cost of labor and other factors rise.

But this does not have a material impact on the employment in China, which is still facing a shortage of cheap labor, he said.

Song also said that China has a larger capacity to absorb a moderate slowdown in economy with the partly tight labor market.

The China-Singapore Forum is jointly organized by the East Asian Institute, a unit of the National University of Singapore, and the Chinese People's Institute for Foreign Affairs. The participants include several former ambassadors of China and Singapore and scholars.

The economists said that they are confident of China making a successful economic transition with increasing domestic demand and the ongoing unprecedented mass urbanization in China.

"Actually the Chinese economy is still in its adolescence," said Tan Khee Giap, chair of the Singapore National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation.