Social Policy Reform in Hong Kong and Shanghai: a Tale of Two Cities by Wong Linda;White Lynn T. III;Shixun Gui;

Author:Wong, Linda;White, Lynn T., III;Shixun, Gui;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4605338
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Male

25,347

27

Female

67,125

73

Total

92,472

100

Age

Number

Percentage (%)

Below 30

2,843

3

30–39

30,357

33

40–49

41,519

45

50–55

13,157

14

Over 55

4,596

5

Total

92,472

100

Education level

Number

Percentage (%)

No schooling

102

0

Primary 1–5

3,011

3

Primary 6

11,656

13

Secondary 1–3

34,663

37

Secondary 4–5

35,480

38

Secondary 6–7

4,200

5

Tertiary education

3,360

4

Total

92,472

100

Source: Employees Retraining Board, Hong Kong.

Shanghai

In Shanghai, retraining is free of charge for job seekers certified to be xiagang workers and for the unemployed. However, if training is for self-development purposes, each trainee will have to pay 300 yuan for joining the course. The training programs, designed, financed, and delivered by the government, are linked to the needs of the market. Among the ten positions advertised to be in greatest demand for workers every week in the local newspapers, training programs will be offered for the first four ranks. Examples of such vacancies include cashiers (much sought-after for stores and supermarkets that have mushroomed in the face of the economic reforms), domestic helpers, cooks, electrical technicians, and computer technicians (Field interview, June 1999). The training centers are attached to the placement centers, widely known in Shanghai as qiandian hou gongchang (employment service provided in the shop, training in the backyard). Each class will have about forty trainees. The length of training differs from job to job: domestic helpers will be trained for three weeks, six hours a day; cooks and technicians will receive training for half a year, but for only three days a week. Upon completion of training, the trainees will be referred jobs. It is likely that a domestic helper employed for eight hours a day will get around 800 yuan per month. According to the head of the training center I visited, the success rate in job placement is often boosted from the normal rate of below 30 percent to as high as 70 percent for domestic helpers (Field interview, June 1999).

Job Creation

In general job creation programs are intended to support the creation of new jobs or the maintenance of existing ones. Three general types of programs fall under this category. First, there are subsidies to encourage employers to hire new workers or to keep employees who might otherwise have been laid off for business reasons. These can take the form of direct wage subsidies (for either the employer or worker) or social security payment offsets. These types of subsidies are always targeted to a particular category of worker or employer. The second category involves direct job creation in the public or nonprofit sector through public works or related programs. Typically, government funds used for these programs cover compensation costs to hire previously unemployed workers, usually on a temporary basis. Third, support is sometimes offered to unemployed workers to start their own enterprises. This can involve offering microfinancing for start-up or operating costs, allowing unemployment benefits to continue where claimants start their own business, offering grants, or providing business support services (Betcherman, Dar, Luinstra, and Ogawa, 2000, p. 6). Direct public employment creation attempts to alleviate unemployment by creating jobs and hiring the unemployed directly. It targets the displaced and the long-term unemployed, with a view to help them regain contact with the labor market, thereby minimizing the probability of stigmatization, skills obsolescence, and marginalization.

Hong

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