Creation of jobs to be top priority at leaders' conference

Job creation is likely to be the top priority for China's leaders when they hold an annual meeting this month to decide the country's economic policy for the coming year, economists say.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council, China's cabinet, will convene the Central Economic Working Conference sometime during the next fortnight, the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po newspaper reported yesterday.

The meeting is usually held at the end of November, but has been pushed back this year because of last month's 16th party congress.

This year, China's leaders will probably focus on ways to create jobs for workers left unemployed by the closure of state-owned enterprises.

The nation is facing growing unrest as state-owned businesses fire workers and shut down factories to become more efficient and compete with private companies. Meanwhile, private enterprises have not been able to create jobs fast enough to absorb those thrown out of work because they cannot easily raise money to fund expansion, economists say. That means reforms to the country's banking and financial sectors are needed.

Unemployment is a relatively new problem for China, and laid-off workers are finding it hard to deal with the lack of social security, medical benefits and job opportunities. Officially, the urban unemployment rate is 3 to 4 per cent, but the China Academy of Social Sciences said this week it could be 8 to 9 per cent, which translates to about 20 million people competing for eight million jobs.