Better employment policies for migrant workers

Source: China.org.cn | 03-05-2009 17:47

BEIJING, March 5 -- Migrant peasant workers will be covered by unemployment policies for urban residents, said Zhang Xiaojian, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, as he met with three peasant worker deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC).

On March 3, Hu Xiaoyan, Kang Houming and Zhu Xueqin, three peasant worker NPC deputies, had a face-to-face meeting with Zhang Xiaojian, during which the deputies questioned the vice minister about pressing issues like the employment bottleneck facing returning migrant workers, transfer of social security insurance, and employment training.

In his response, Zhang Xiaojian said the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security would direct more attention to returning peasant workers, and plans to include them in policies for which previously only urban unemployed were eligible.

10 percent unemployment

Over the past year, more than 10 percent of the country's 200 million peasant workers have lost their jobs in the face of the global financial crisis. Kang Houming, who comes from southwestern Chongqing Municipality, said he had carried out a field survey in a number of villages and found that in one labor-exporting village, 20-30 of the previously employed population of 100 people had lost their jobs in coastal cities.