12 million to lose jobs

As many as 12 million state-owned-enterprise workers will lose their jobs this year, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Zhang Zuoji, said yesterday.

Speaking at a national labour conference in Beijing, Mr Zhang said officials must work hard to contain the urban unemployment rate within 3.5 per cent.

He reminded officials they must do everything they could to find new work for the unemployed and give them the necessary assistance when they were out of work.

At present, millions of jobless workers live on about 100 yuan (HK$88) a month paid by their employers. There have been frequent reports of protests by workers when their bosses failed to pay them even the basic wages.

Quoting information released at the conference, Xinhua said 98 per cent of workers who retired last year had been paid their full pensions.

It was common knowledge that many state firms had siphoned off employees' pension funds when they ran out of money and had also spent it on stock markets.