Rising unemployment threatens China’s poverty targets

A worker checks rolls of steel at the port in Wuhan, on the Yangtze river, in China’s central Hubei province on Sunday. (AFP)

• China has little in the way of social security benefits and workers who lose their jobs have an inadequate safety net, meaning mass unemployment often brings a fear of unrest

BEIJING: Although China is claiming success in its battle against the coronavirus, millions have lost their jobs in the economic fallout, throwing into jeopardy an ambitious target to eradicate poverty this year.
Beijing has been working to fire up the economy again after bringing it to a near standstill to curb the spread of COVID-19, but many firms have had a bumpy restart and workers are bearing the brunt of the pain.
Despite being a country of skyscrapers and high-tech innovations, China still has millions of people on meager incomes.
About 5.5 million rural Chinese live in poverty, defined by the government as surviving on less than 2,300 yuan ($326) a year.
A slowing economy puts pressure on a key Communist Party goal to become a “moderately prosperous society” by the end of 2020, an ambition in place long before the virus emerged.
It also threatens a long-held tacit agreement between people and party that freedoms can be sacrificed in return for economic progress, an understanding that largely forms the basis of the government’s legitimacy in the absence of elections.
China has little in the way of social security benefits and workers who lose their jobs have an inadequate safety net, meaning mass unemployment often brings a fear of unrest.
Official statistics show jobless numbers have soared, with roughly 5 million more people out of work between December and February.
Data firm Caixin said its services purchasing managers’ index, a key indicator of activity in the services sector, showed companies cut staff at the quickest pace on record in March.
Hu Fangdi, 23, lost her job as a saleswoman at an airport retail store two weeks ago and has had no luck finding a new role.
“No one was buying things during the outbreak and the company laid us off,” she told AFP.
Lily Han, who lost her sales job at a tech firm last month, said she needs a new job within two months just to make ends meet.
The 24-year-old has applied for over 300 positions but has come up empty handed.