Economic Transition and the Labor Market in China

This study investigates the structure and trends of the labor market in China in the economic transition. Based on two large-scale repeated surveys, we cover a variety of rarely explored issues related to the labor market in China. These issues include labor market participation and various employment such as second jobs and post retirement employment, labor supply issues like working hours, work efforts, and wages, and also issues related to jobs, such as job matching mechanisms, job turnover, and job training. Lastly, we also investigate unemployment and layoffs. We find that the market system is playing an increasing role in the labor market, but state-owned sector is the least market oriented in labor demand and supply system. Further reforms are needed in order to move toward a higher degree of labor market. This study provides a fairly complete picture of the Chinese labor market and should be important for further researches in this area.