China sheds millions of jobs as its economy goes sour
Some 20 million Chinese migrant workers have lost their job as a result of the global economic downturn according to figures released by China’s Office of Central Rural Work Leading Group. In all, they represent 15.3 per cent of all workers who have left China’s countryside in recent years to work in its coastal manufacturing regions and Chinese officials now fear the unemployed workers’ return to rural towns and villages could threaten social stability. In a speech to Cambridge University on Monday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned that China’s economic problems were far from over, meaning job losses could continue to pile up. “The crisis has not yet hit the bottom,” he said, “and it is hard to predict what other problems there will be down the path.”