Testing the theory of capitalism in China: does stability hold when jobs are lost?

FRONT PAGE: "China Jobless Ranks Soar: Unemployed Migrants Top 20 Million; Fears of Unrest Grow," by Ian Johnson and Andrew Batson, Wall Street Journal, 3 February 2009.

Chinese population about 1.3b. Size of labor force estimated at roughly 800m. Migrant workers (floating labor) is about 130m, and 20m of those are unemployed right now.

Doesn't seem too bad, but Time's "The World" (16 Feb 09) section says these migrant workers are the "backbone of the country's manufacturing sector"--those "fresh off the farm" laborers that drive any industrialization phase (here, on a repeatable basis).

So China's stimulus (now almost $600b) is likely to grow.

Comments

[Rosa]

The stimulus package does a lot to grow the manufacturing sector and to build infrastructure it should go a long way to help the poorer elements of Chinese society. Overall, I think the package will strengthen the Chinese middle class which will help the world economy long term.