Around 20-million migrant workers have returned to the Chinese countryside after failing to find work in the cities because of the economic downturn, a senior official said this week.
The figure is double a previous official estimate and will heighten the Chinese authorities’ concerns about stability. It came a day after the government warned that 2009 would be “possibly the toughest year” for economic development since the turn of the century.
Chen Xiwen, director at the Office of the Central Leading Group on Rural Work, said a government survey showed that 15,3% of an estimated 130-million rural migrants to the cities had returned home jobless.
Adding new entrants to the rural labour market gave a total of around 26-million unemployed in the countryside. Some economists say the real figure could reach 40-million.
China sees tens of thousands of “mass incidents” each year and the authorities have issued a string of warnings to officials that the economic downturn may exacerbate problems.
The government this week issued its first major policy document for 2009, detailing plans to raise incomes, create jobs and extend health and welfare spending.
China has around 750-million rural residents. But growth in the countryside has lagged far behind the cities, with the rural-urban income gap widening rapidly over the last two decades. —