Strengths And Weaknesses: System Of Employment

The state or government of China plays a very important role in the system of employment. The Chinese government takes the employment as it’s first and foremost priority. Employment in China is the main way of earning a livelihood and a strategy to maintain stability in the society. The government of China has analyzed and framed the system of employment on international experiences in its process, steadily improved its relevant legal system, and developed, and executed a set of zealous employment policies (Aizenman, 2015). The Chinese government complies to improve employment by developing national economy, furthering the reform on its economic political system, improving social security system, economic development of rural and urban areas, and harmonizing economic development. The Chinese government has taken various efficient measures and done possibly everything to increase job opportunities, keeping a rate of unemployment under control, and expanding the employment scale (Dian, 2014). With all the effective methods and processes taken up by the Chinese Government, still, there is a huge need of restructuring of the employment system of the China. According to the movement of the market reform that is moving towards liberty and choice-oriented economy, the ancient model of the system of employment has become old fashioned, and also it is incapable of managing issues raised through the proceedings of market liberalization. System of employment is an important part of the Chinese government as this is not just an economic issue but also a delicate political issue. Later in the essay, the role of the Chinese government in the system of employment is discussed with the help of the strengths and weaknesses of the state in the process of the system of employment (Gordon, 2010).

The Chinese Government has taken various steps to create employment in the country. To achieve the success in the steps of creating employment in the country and also good working condition, many policies and strategies are being promoted by the government which acts as the strength of the government. China has believed in the policy of reform and opening-up, by keeping its focus on economic construction, and then it slowly entered into the road of building a socialist market economy system. The results have given strength to the employment system of China (Hu, 2014). This had resulted in a rapid development of social security and labor undertakings. The stable situation in employment is one of the main goals of most of the government. China has also been able to get a stable situation in employment. This stability has been reached by the Chinese Government by maintaining stable and harmonious labor relations and revising the income, and wage distribution system. Chinese Government also ensures that minimum standard of living is being followed in the cities. Along with this, social security system is also being earnestly promoted in the rural areas. This helps in maintaining labor relations. Strong labor relations in rural and urban areas help in increasing the labor strength which makes the Chinese labor worldwide famous for its working and charges (Jia, 2014). Many companies prefer to invest in the Chinese economy because of its labor. This is one of the solid points of the Chinese Government in the system of employment. Another point that strengthens the Chinese government’s role, that it is an important part of international labor affairs. By the principles of mutual equality, benefit, and respect, the government initiates in all the international labor affairs. China has managed fruitful exchanges in the field of social security and labor. It has also participated with many international organizations like United Nation Organization, International Labor Organization, Asian Development Bank, and World Bank. It has delivered a positive image in the international community in eliminating poverty, protecting interest and legal rights of the workers, and promoting employment (Kanamori, 2007).

By promoting employment through economic growth, the Chinese Government is gaining two benefits in a one go. The Chinese Government focuses on the economic construction; by promoting employment. Employment is promoted by carrying out an effective employment policy, and by adopting various active measures to increase the employment rate. The Government is rationally altering the employment structure with the help of readjustment of industrial structure. The Government is providing guidance for the development of such enterprises and industries that are capable of creating more job opportunities (Li, 2007). When government is helping in the development of capital construction investment, powerfully expanding domestic demands, and in maintaining the vigorous development of the national economy, it also stresses on the development of enterprises that are labor-intensive with market potential, and comparative advantages. For example, service enterprises and medium and small-sized enterprises, as these are capable of creating and offering job opportunities to a large number of people. This also helps in increasing employment and expanding employment channels, by effectively developing the economy with varied forms of ownership, like private, individual, and collective ownerships, and by developing and encouraging different forms of employment. The Chinese Government has a vital-role in the establishment of the market-oriented mechanism of employment (Ma, 2009). A government employment policy that includes initiative of laborers finding job on their own, the government promoting employment, and the market adjusting the employment demand encourages fair competition and secure employment, employers to take decision on the number and quality of their own employees, and adopting measures for the promotion of shaping employment mechanism that is market-oriented (Meng, 2012).

The other strength of the Chinese Government is the labor market information network that is displaying its worth by promoting exchanges of information concerning demand and supply of labor, and helping unemployed in finding a job or reemploying them through labor market.  Labor market is set up with a sound mechanism, good service, and standardized operation, which is under effective supervision. The Chinese Government has organized trials to setup labor market that are scientific, modernized and standardized in hundred cities. The Chinese Government has recently started to trial-implement the mechanism of pricing for the labor market, to enable the mechanism of market to play its basic role of regulatory in the wage formation, labor flow, and allocation of labor resources. Workers are the greatest strength of the Chinese Government and it is working hard to enhance the worker’s quality (Qi & Prime, 2009). The Chinese Government has aimed to promote different forms of education through various channels to raise the professional skills and cultural level of the workers. It has laid equal stress on vocational qualification credentials, and academic qualifications. At present the system followed by the Chinese Government of nine-year compulsory education covers about 80 percent of the total population. It has helped in dropping the illiteracy rate to 5 percent among the young and middle-aged. At present there are 1220 regular institutions that offer higher studies, with 7.15 million students. With 1.50 million students 680 adult institutions of higher learning and 80000 regular middle schools, with 80 million students are currently in process in China. The aim of China is to establish multi-level and an all-round technical and vocational education and training system (Song, 2014). This is done with the development of higher technical and vocational schools, secondary technical and vocational schools, technical schools, community-run vocational training institutions, employment training centers, and secondary polytechnic schools with the purpose of strengthening the training of new workers, laid-off workers, and on-the-job employees. Training courses offered to secondary-graduates like pre-job training especially to those who have failed to gain higher education. Employment training centre and training schools are being restructured and readjusted into comprehensive bases of training. The introduction of vocational qualification credential system and a vocational qualification system of the Chinese Government has been set that covers all level workers, from basic to senior. At present, more than 80 percent of the freshly employed people in urban areas, are either graduated from senior high schools, have some kind of job skill training. This educated and trained labor is not only helping the country internally, but also promoting it in the whole world (Srivastava & Thomson, 2007).

The above-given points are the strengths of the government while it is managing the system of employment of China. The Chinese Government with the 21^st century has entered on a new development stage; this is the stage of starting the construction on a full-scale of a comparatively accelerating modernization and a well-off society. The major aims of China’s labor and social security efforts are to promote employment, protect employees’ rights and interests, coordinate labor relations, raise people’s incomes and improve social security (Stebleton, 2010). It is true that the Chinese Government is working very hard to provide the best and most effective employment system to the country but there many place in the current system of employment of China where some restructuring and improvements are required which the Chinese government is not able to improve. It has been regularly argued that China’s market reform will not succeed until and unless thoughtful consideration is taken on institutional reform in the system of employment. It is being said again and again that the Chinese employment system is old and obsolete. And it is unable to handle the issues that may occur in this new era. Though this is also true that the government has tried to restructure the traditional system of employment, but the process is still not convincible. China has a long primitive history (Swider, 2014). Therefore the government of this primitive state has a general centralized structure from long time back. This common historical memory affects the mindset of the Chinese society and people living in the society. This also affected the model of government. The democratic country of China still follows the centralized system in employment system of China. Hence, the state governance, even under a democratic structure of government, has combined the idea of state intervention so that optimal welfare can be provided to the citizens, regardless of whether individuals capable of dealing with social issues by themselves or not. This shows the weakness of the government of China in case of taking decisions regarding the restructuring of the system of employment as per the current system of government that is democratic (Wang & Yang, 2013).

Market reform and economic globalization has emerged as a severe challenge to the China’s system of employment. Although the development of a new framework of system of employment has been triggered by the market reform, which is centered on the contractual and legal regulation of labor relations, still the collective consultation and workplace between employers and trade union is divided and employer and worker’s interest conflicts presently the industrial confrontation and conflicts has raised as the most important issue for the Chinese Government. These disputes are not limited to individuals, but a large ratio of the industrial disputes has been noticed. This is a huge weakness of the Chinese Government when it comes to employment relations or employment system (Zhang, Song, & Wang, 2015). In last few years the labor disputes has increased to a serious consideration level. These disputes are based on issues like economic, remedies, labor insurance, compensation, and welfare schemes. This situation has raised a legitimate question that whether the universal contractual and legal regulations adopted by the Chinese Government is working or not. Also, is this a fruitful regulation for the labor? Particularly, the Chinese government’s functional capability of administering these regulations is also questioned. The position of various parties in such labor disputes has also been intensified. The evidence shows that these disputes were settled more with the help of arbitration rather than using mediation (Zhang & Wang, 2009). The increasing disputes and their settlement type shows that employers and enterprises are increasingly breach the contractual and legal rights of the employees, as given in labor law. The government shows lacking in taking correct steps to avoid such disputes and managing the enterprises and employers in providing the legal rights of the labor. The labor disputes shows that market reform and economic transition has sparked more problems and issues between management and labor. In a precision most of the disputes are of collective nature. This indicates that if China doesn’t change its current model of employment system than more complex and difficult issues will arise that will be more difficult to settle. So the current model of employment system is a weakness of the Chinese government’s employment system (Zhu & Nyland, 2016).

The other weakness of Chinese government is that it is not able to control the increasing worker’s mass protests and campaigns. The usual channels and processes are not followed when labor uses mass protest and campaign to solve their problems. They took another method of protest and that to take a street and rally to the government agencies or even to the central government. In China this kind of protest and rally is known as labors collective incident. According to scholars, if the legal channel is not able give the workers economic interests then they take these collective actions. This lack of worker’s interest is highly related to the adjustment of industrial and economic structure and to the stages of market reform (Zuo, 2013). Institutional changes like ownership change, social security, and employment restructure are three most important changes that occur in an institution. These institutional reforms damage the worker’s interests. The rapid increase of private and foreign enterprises also damages the worker’s interests. The new labor law has helped in triggering the sense of workers’ regarding their legal rights. This has led in the increase of these collective incidents. The government has ordered the increase of efficiency and reduction of workforce after the 15^th CCP National Convention. This has resulted in mass layoff by the state-owned enterprises. That led to mass protest, rally and petition. The Chinese government still lack in this case as it has not yet establish a public statistical system that clears the reasons and result of workers’ collective incidents (Aizenman, 2015). These incidents threatened the social and political stability. Seemingly these collective incidents have intensified in China in recent years. The rate of strikes and other collective actions has been increasing rapidly in employment system of China. This also true that the Chinese workers have no legal right to strike, but again the reality says that various methods of demonstrations has been attempted by the Chinese workers. The Chinese Government needs to work on the strategies to satisfy the demand of the workers by restructuring the current model of the employment system (Dian, 2014).

China is famous throughout the world for it labor and workforce. The scholars says that the model of Chinese employment system that follows a centralized method even when the country is a democratic help the government in increasing the employment rate and creating job opportunities by developing industrial sector, and this ultimately help in economic growth and political stability. Its employment policies are drafted in the favor of labors and workers (Gordon, 2010). The labor market also helps the Chinese Government in attaining the goals setup for the benefit of the country. It has also brought the foreign investors to invest in various sectors of the country. This has given China economic globalization. These all factors strengthen the position of Chinese Government and the working of employment system is justified. In all these good factors, this also true that in all the processes of market reformation and economic globalization, the employment system of China is in transition (Bowles, 2007). The control of state corporatist is getting loosened while the new policies and institutions have not started functioning as expected. However there are choices between the labor, the state, and the management regarding the adoption. The final decision will help the country in improving the system of employment which will directly improve the working conditions for the workers. With the largest population in the world China has a vast resources and land that give the potential to become any kind of production market. The Chinese Government has to analyze its weaknesses and use its strengths to overcome the weaknesses and become the best employment system of the world by coordinating the new and old methods (Li, 2007).

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